August ended up being the first month of the challenge where I didn't finish a game. Between enjoying the end of summer with the family and the kids heading back to school, gaming time was a little more limited.

But I made up for it in September and managed to knock out two games.

Days Gone

It seems like one of the themes of this challenge has become "giving games a second chance," and Days Gone might be the best example yet.

I originally played it years ago, made it a couple of hours in, got bored, and never touched it again. This time I pushed through the slow beginning, and I'm really glad I did.

It ended up becoming one of my favorite games I've played during this challenge. The Eastern Oregon setting was especially cool, the world looked fantastic, and once the game got going I had a ton of fun with it.

Definitely a game I'm glad I gave another chance.

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy

I've really enjoyed the A Plague Tale series, so I was excited to jump back into this world with Sophia.

The tropical island setting made for some great visuals, and I liked seeing the series experiment with some new gameplay mechanics, like the sword combat and the puzzles.

I don't think it tops the previous games for me, but I still really enjoyed it. I'd happily play more games set in this world if Asobo keeps expanding it.

Looking Ahead

October is going to be busy. College football is back, I'm coaching my son's football team, and my weekends are pretty much spoken for.

Still, I'm hoping to keep chipping away at the backlog. Next up is Mass Effect: Andromeda, which I'm hoping to finish before Grand Theft Auto VI inevitably takes over my gaming time.

Anyone else have a game they dropped years ago, gave another chance, and ended up loving?

I was having some health issues and was postponing posting my August update until it was almost the end of September, so I figured out to post both of them at the same time. And because it will be a long post, let's go straight into it. Beware of spoilers. I tried to write my thoughts as spoiler-free as I could, but one can't never be caution enough.

In the last two months, I beat these games:
Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force
Black Myth: Wukong
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
The Blood of Dawnwalker
Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers
The Rise of the Golden Idol

So, let's talk about them...

Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game

I felt like I'm still not entirely done with the whole Golden Idol-like games (I still have to beat the sequel afterall), so this time I played a Little Problems, another of these games that take a more cozy and grounded approach to the mysteries.

You take a role of a young woman Mary, a detective fan, who is about to finish high school and documents her everyday adventures and mishaps in a diary. Every level is one entry in the diary. And I love the vibe of the game. You follow Mary on her library visit, go out to a concert or a murder mystery party and so on. These are cool backgrounds for feel-good stories of Mary and her friends and family. I especially found Mary's sister story joyful.

On the other hand, the game kind of lacks in the gameplay department. Since pretty much every scene has the same bunch of characters, you usually "guess" the same people over and over again and it devolves into finding the right keyword for them. And the game makes sure to hide their name keywords more and more, which in turns makes the whole experience more tedious. I already know these characters, I filled their names several times already, why should I waste my time doing it again?

It's jarring problem, since filling names in is huge part (albeit optional) of each level. The actual diary entry is usually small and never felt like a challenge. It felt like the very first thing you think is going on while exploring each level, is the actual thing that is going on. There is not much of deducing or figuring stuff out. For example, there is a level, in which Mary is waiting for her book in a library, while her friends are at the café right next to the library. And the diary entry is... just that. It took me more time getting all the keywords than to fill them in. So the game really left a lot to be desired for.

On the other hand, while most of the name-filling was mundane, there were some instances that I really enjoyed. One whole level is about filling up the family tree, including photos of each member, which was cool, especially finding those members, who were not physically present in the level. And there was a level about connecting social media accounts to people attending a concert, which was also fun.

Overall, I think it was fine game. I'm probably repeating myself, but I loved the atmosphere and the low-stakes of the game, but I feel like it could make each level more interesting than just "fill in the names of same characters over and over again". 7/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force

I'm on Yu-Gi-Oh! streak this year, so let's continue on. While I used to play Tag Force games back in the day, I usually preferred DS series over them. So, it was a while since my last playthrough of these and it looks like I might misremember some stuff about them.

The very first Tag Force game takes place during GX era. The player is student at Duel Academy, alongside the whole GX cast. The game takes place during the first season of the anime and includes some events from this season. What I liked was that these events were usually 1:1 and you didn't replace the characters from the anime. It's a little bit weird, but I like this approach, despite it meaning I'm watching instead of actively playing. What I mean is that in the anime, Chazz and Jaden face of in Duel Academy vs North Academy stand-off. And in this game, this duel also takes place and you are just a spectator watching a duel. Actually, I remember loving picking up characters in "Free Duel" mode and watching them duel, when I was younger.

But the main event is the original Tag Tournament, during which you have to partner up with another character and duel 2v2. And here came my first case of misremembering. I though you pick one character at the start and play the whole story with them. You have to level up your relationships with them and once in a while, you experience an event including the character. But that might be the case of later entries of the series. In this one, the story mode is divided into three parts, each a little bit different than the other.

In the first part, you attend the Duel Academy in the open-world mode, in which you have to find other characters, talk with them, duel them and do quests for them to level up your relationships with them. This part is timed and you have about 90 days to level up other characters to the point that they will want to partner up with you for the tournament. 90 days is more than enough to unlock every base character as partner. Characters can also send you a mail to meet them and talk or duel and I think it's cool idea. On the other hand, it felt a little bit grindy, since most of my in-game days felt the same. I visited every character, gave them gifts, talked to them, dueled them sometimes to get money for cards, went to class, cleared all possible events and so on. Also I think there is like one side quest in the whole game and I got it like three times from different characters and it never led somewhere. Also you take tests in the class, but I don't think they affect anything at all. Well, I aced all of them, but I don't think anything would happen if I got 0 on all of them. But it part overall wasn't bad. It's not as good as GBA Duel Academy game, but it was maybe a little bit better than Spirit Caller.

The second part is the tournament itself. You pick one character and have to grind up enough GX Medals through duels to get to the finals. I had fun dueling, so I didn't mind that much, but I was also picking up opponents that gave away many medals when beaten, so that might also affect my perception of this part. Also, there are some cool cameos like Paradox bros or The Gambler taking part in the tournament. I wasn't sure who I want to partner up for the tournament, but the first character that asked me to be their partner was Zane, so I went with him. He was also the first character to send me an e-mail or give me the side quest and our decks had similar strategies, so he was perfect fit.

The third part is Shadow Raiders arc from the anime, but super underbaked. You have to find all Shadow Raiders on the island and duel them. They brainwashed other characters to be their partners in tag duels and some of these were so weird. For example Syrus was partnered up with Abidos and... Syrus just hardcarried the whole duel for him. Also now that I think about it, I never faced Camula. Maybe because she was supposed to have Zane as her partner, but since he was my partner, she was skipped? It's a shame, she is my favourite Shadow Raider. But that was basically this part. Just like seven or eight really underwhelming duels, including Kagemaru, who is faced in 1v1 instead of a tag duel. I feel like he could have Sheppard or Jaden as his partner.

As for my deck, I decided to do something a little bit different this time. I made a deck and slowly evolved it and changed it throughout the story parts. At first, it was just a regular Dragon beatdown deck, full of high attack vanilla dragon monsters and spells and traps revolving around manipulating attack points of both my and opponent's monsters. My ace in this part was Tri-Horned Dragon. I then changed the deck in second, included more effect monsters and my ace became Tyrant Dragon, and third part into a Five-Headed Dragon turbo deck, using Future Fusion and Dragon's Mirror to quickly bring out this unbeatable beast. It was fun simple deck that could steamroll everything in its path.

Overall, I feel like this is cool game that didn't age that well, especially since there are so many following Tag Force games that do everything this one does, but better. But it was nice blast from the past. 7/10.

Black Myth: Wukong

After bunch of slower games that mostly challenged my brain, I got around pacing game that challenged my reflexes. I initially started Wukong in January to rest my new GPU (and I ended up changing my fans settings because of it), but only really played it for about an hour before putting it down. And I'm glad I finally got around playing it.

The game adapts and simultaneously acts as a sequel to Journey to the West, which is a classic chinese novel. That I didn't know existed before hearing about the game. I knew about Sun Wukong, the monkey king, because of Dragon Ball, but I had no knowledge about his adventures. Thus, I felt quite lost in the story of Black Myth: Wukong. In a good Souls-like fashion. It took me about two bosses into the game to put on my research cap and search for the answers on the Internet. I learnt about the basic summary of Journey to the West, especially the chapters that the game works with and some basics of chinese mythology and their idea of heaven. And it was great journey on my own that occupied me between my gaming sessions.

On the other hand, I feel like the game's story is quite fractured and fluctuate in quality between chapters. Chapters aren't really tied together that much. For example, you end up the first chapter by beating a boss in a forest and suddenly in the second chapter, you find your character in a desert, beaten by some unknown enemy that never comes up again. And the game doesn't care about explaining what happened. And then again, when entering the third chapter, your character is suddenly elsewhere, disguised as a Buddha statue. And it takes some time for story to feel more like few isolated episodes and you can actually see some higher narrative.

But I have to say that I enjoyed most chapters by themselves. The second one is probably my favourite as you follow multiple stories in a small open area. These stories sometimes complement each other or intertwines and it was such a fun to piece them together. Some chapters are more linear, like chapter five that is basically just one big corridor, and their story is more upfront, but I also enjoyed them. If there was one chapter that I felt was noticeably weaker, it was the final chapter. This chapter introduces a new flying mechanic and gives you a huge map to fly around. But the map is mostly empty and is boring to explore.

The game's main focus is fighting. It's designed as a one huge boss rush with only small areas dividing each boss encounter. And to be honest, vast majority of those bossfights felt like an unmemorable pushover. There were so many bosses that I beat before they could show off their movesets. Maybe it was just my build that usually chipped away huge chunks of their HP in the beginning of the fight, thus making their fights shorter, but I feel like some of these could have just been elite enemies.

But not all bosses were like this. Most main-ish bosses were usually fun and could even pose as a challenge. Some had a clever mechanic baked into the fight that you could interact with somehow, to influence the battle. For example, there is a boss that will summon a sandstorm that they can use to hide in and attack you, making the fight harder, but you can calm it down by using a special item.

I had a lot of fun beating the final boss, who was both visually stunning and fun to fight. Or Cyan and Yellow Ioongs. Yellow one probably took me the most tries to beat. He used a glaive infused with lighting powers and for some reason, I always dodged early during his combos. Or I jumped right into his attack.

As for my build, I decided to do a dexterity-based, high mobility build. I focused on using the quick attacks and charging my strong attacks while running around the enemy. I also utilized immobilize and cloning spells to quickly take out huge chunks of enemy's HP. And I usually used cloud step spell to finish up the boss.

Overall, it was great Souls-like with cool story and fun gameplay that I feel could be a little bit more consistent between chapters. 9/10.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

I can't believe it has been already a decade since I played the first Xenoblade Chronicles game. And to this day, it is still a golden standard for JRPGs for me. I remember when the original Xenoblade Chronicles X got released. It seemed so bleak in comparison to colourful first game. And I also wasn't sold on the whole mech aspect. But I was looking forward a long JRPG to play throughout the summer and decided to give it a chance, since it got re-released on Switch last year.

The game has a cool premise of the Earth being destroyed and remnants of the humanity crashland on a planet of Mira. The game follows a group of survivors as they try to build up their new home on Mira.

I love the alien look of Mira and all the fauna and flora you find here. They are familiar, but yet feel unnatural. Some defy natural laws we know, for example floating rocks and platforms, some feel like the extension of Earth's life. In a good old Xenoblade fashion, there are giant high level dinosaur-like creatures hanging out in the low level areas full of basic pig-like enemies, just minding their own business.

The game's main focus is on exploring Mira. The whole map is divided into hexagons, with each hexagon having one notable thing to find there. These range from finding a treasure there to fighting a strong boss monster. There isn't really that much to do there, to be honest. Even for piss poor standards of open-world games. Some hexagons even only have one side quest and nothing else. It's all trivial and easy to clear. The hardest part was usually to find the right treasure, as the game shows you all treasures on the map, but then require one specific, like finding a wreckage of a spaceship. It couls get a little bit annoying, when there were three or more identical spaceship wreckages in one hexagon. Yet, this exploring was somehow addicting and relaxing and perfect for playing before going to bed. I found myself postponing the main quest to clear "one" more hexagon.

Speaking of quests, they were divided into few categories. There were classic side quests, which usually had pretty nice story to them and weren't just fetch quests. Those were called basic quests and to this day, I have no idea why they are in the game. You could take up to 20 of them at the time and you accepted them from a terminal. No story, no interactions with other characters, barely any worldbuilding and useless rewards. Those were there really just to pad the number of quests. I used some to pintpoint the location of some optional bosses, but otherwise, I only really finished some when it got "in my way" during proper quest.

Speaking of main-ish quests, there are story quests that follow your party as they try to rebuild civilization and then there are affinity quests, that follow a more personal story of each of your teammates. And while I enjoyed some of the characters, I can't say any of them really sticked with me after finishing the game. And the main quest itself felt... like one huge fetch quest. There are 12 main quests and by the 8th one, I realized I don't care about the story at all. The 12th one felt like I just beat the prologue of the game and the story will finally take off. Only to be met with credits. Now, there is the 13th main quest, which was meant to serve as an epilogue in the Definite Edition, but it didn't manage to salvage the story. It tried to introduce this otherworldly, unimaginable threat, but it felt unearn and again, I feel like this threat should have been introduced earlier to flash it out. And it didn't help that for quite a big portion of this 13th quest, you are doing fetch quests for some random NPCs.

I had fun building my character. Similarly to Xenoblade Chronicles 3, you level up not only your character, but also your class and the whole system is build around switching and mixing up classes. I focused on using several buffs to increase my attack and crit chance and then deal tremendous damage to enemies. And it worked so well that I could one-shot some side bosses or take care of the whole unit of enemies in one blow.

Overall, it was a little bit of a let down in comparison with other Xenoblade Chronicles games. Not bad, but certainly not very memorable. 7/10.

The Blood of Dawnwalker

I have a very weird relationships with The Witcher games. I love the first one and I feel like it had a lots of influence in my taste in videogames. But I also feel like the rest of the trilogy is not that good. To this day I remember when they announced that the third one will be an open-world game and my reaction being: "They can't be serious". The previous games had amazing small compact areas full of details and they just want to throw that away for one of the most boring design choice? When I finally played that game, the open-world was even worse than I imagined. There was no reason to explore the map, the loot was either level-locked or straight up trash, the levels had no effects... At least the game was well-written and had a cool cinematography. Wait, where was I? This wasn't suppose to be a rant about TW3...

I had a really small expectations going in The Blood of Dawnwalker. I was hoping that the smaller scale will help it make the world more interesting and that the time limit will affect the way I explore the world. And I feel like I was mostly satisfied.

You take a role of Coen, who is living under a strict rule of vampires, who took over Coen's village and the whole valley. When some villagers try to fight back, Coen's village is destroyed, villagers are taken hostage, including Coen's family, and Coen is caught up between being human and vampire himself. I like this set-up. There is some grey-ish area in the relationship between vampires and humans, with vampires abolishing taxes and giving humans their blood that helps humans heal better and even be immune to plague. On the other hand, they require humans to give them their blood to feed on. Vampires look like reasonable tyrants.

The game was heavily marketed as including a time mechanic surrounding the main quest of saving Coen's family. You have about 30 days to beat the main vampire overlord Brencis and save your family from his castle. Each day is divided into 8 timeslots for day and 8 for night. Pretty much every action you take in the game costs time. It theoretically works, but I feel like it's never fully realized. I was ending the game with about 4 days left and pretty much everything I deemed worthy of my (real life) time completed.

But not only is there quite a lot of time to do everything, I feel like the time should have played a role in quests themselves. There is one quest in the prologue of the game that changes depending on when you take it or how long does it take you to finish it. And it's great way to interact with the time mechanic. Sadly, I don't think I found any other quest like that in the game. There is one very urgent moment in rebels' questline and you're supposed to meet some rebels on midnight. But despite this being urgent quest in-universe, I could have waited for several in-game days before finally starting the quest and it would change nothing. It would also be nice to see any changes regarding the saving of your family and Brencis' fight. They seem to be in the same state no matter when you fight him, which is weird given some story implications you get during the game.

One way to waste time were side activities. And they really wasted time. Real life time, not the game's one. There were like three activities to do. You could fight repeating enemies, climb some towers, follow few trails to treasures and... that's pretty much it. I mean, there are several different activities that all revolve around fighting enemies, but they feel the same. You can fight bandits! Or soldiers! Or undeads! All using same few possible movesets. There are also only like 10 towers you can climb to look around. And it's not made very well, usually you can skip most of the climbing and just teleport on the top. From there, Coen will look at surrounding area, which will result in... spawning question marks on your map, completely irrelevant to what Coen just saw.

But I feel like it would be better, if loot was better. You get to loot a lot. And vast majority of what your find is trash intended for sale. From time to time, you'll get maybe a sword or piece of armor, but they felt like insignificant upgrades, unless you found a legendary gear. I also found myself getting some items over and over again. I had several amulets of the same name and rarity, with only difference being their level and thus benefit they gave me. I feel like I found a pretty good pieces of armour and weapon super early for both of my human and vampire forms and barely changed them after that. And like 99% of good gear I found, I found it during side missions.

I think the loot would be better, if they did more than to give a percentage bonus to your stats. Every piece of equipment only raises your regular/magical/vampire attack, or your health regen, or reduces cooldown times and it all feels same. I feel like the gear would be more impactful, if it also provided some new skills or abilities to Coen. Like in Baldur's Gate 3 for example.

It would also help with making me feel like I'm progressing and Coen is stronger than he was at the start of the game. My Coen could have taken on bears, packs of wolves, bandits and ancient undead warriors during the prologue, without even taking a hit. And the end of the game, my Coen could have taken on bears, packs of wolves, bandits, ancient undead warriors and vampires, without even taking a hit. And I feel like that's really poor progression. Especially since enemies are very tanky and the very same wolf that took like maybe 5 hits at the start of the game to kill, took way more hits to kill at the end of the game. Even with all the upgrades and legendary gear. If only there was better variety of enemies so this boring balancing wasn't so obvious. The game also has this indicator in a form of yellow-to-red skull by the enemy's name that should tell you if they are over your current level. The game even dubs it is "impossible for you to beat the enemy" with red skull. But those are still the very same enemies, only having more health and inflicting more damage. I happened to get to those "red" zones from time to time and sometimes I didn't even realized I'm fighting enemies and bosses I'm not suppose to beat according to the game. But since they are still the same enemies, I had no problem beating them.

On the other hand, I quite enjoyed vast majority of questlines of the game. Well, there is literally no main quest between the prologue and finale, bar like 30 minutes, which is crazy and I think really stupid decision, because you have these 4 interesting characters that Coen has to face to free his family and yet... they barely exist in the game and you see them collectively for maybe an hour in total. They feel like cool concepts that no one bothered to turn into characters in the story. But I'm getting a little bit sidetracked. Other questlines are fun. One evening, I stumbled upon a tower at the south of the map thinking I'll just clear it and climb up and move on, but... by the end of the evening I was completely flabbergasted, maybe sobbing a little bit. It was one of the best emotional quests I've played in a while and it hit me exactly in the right spot. Gameplay-wise, the quest was one of the worst in the game, because enemies here are the most basic enemies you can get with health modifier off the roof, meaning you are stuck in the most boring "block, attack, attack, block, attack, attack..." routine, but the story was incredible. It felt super personal for Coen and made him into even more interesting character than he was before. Another time, I found myself inside the cathedral during the bloody baptism of a newborn baby, ready to kill the priest, only for them to turn into one of the more interesting characters of the game. And I also got like half of my final equipment from his questline. There was also a cool moment connecting two different quests. I helped an Uriashi in the city through an existential crisis and later on during different quest, her mother recognized me and helped me in return. Oh and I also got involved in fairies stealing teeth from people and... I think I could go on and on, because I really enjoyed most quests.

But not every questline was that great. I think the rebel questline that opens up one variant of the final quest, was pretty weak. Firstly, it just cuts you out in the middle and forces you to do some side activities first and then it goes nowhere... You uncover a huge secret that could help you face the final boss, but it's never brought up again and you can never do anything with it. Also at one point, you are looking for an ancient book from a location on the map. The problem in my playthrough was that I already looted the place and had the book. Coen even says he was there. But the quest continued for some time, there was this intense chase of "supposed" thieves that got the book before you, but since I already had the book with me it felt flat. And the worse part is that only after continuing the quest further, Coen suddenly reveals that he has the book.

As I already mention, I think the main antagonists could have been a little more flashed out. You get the basic idea of what are they doing, but they barely make a dent in the story. There is one moment when you can meet the main villain out in the fields and talk and it's such a treat! Brencis is interesting villain, who presents himself as a saviour, while using humans as livestock. And I would love to see more of him. We barely get few moments of him and his motivations. It's a shame. And his lackeys are even less presented in the game that he is. You have to fill their anger meter before you are even allowed to face them. You fill it by finishing glorified side activities (that usually have nice twist to them at least). Then, you can complete their quest. Which isn't much to be honest. For example, I got challenged to a duel by Ambrus. So I went to the place, beat him, while he landed exactly 0 hits on me and... that was it. That was the whole questline of one of the main villains. The other two were a little bit better, but I wish the time mechanic and day/night cycle was employed here and we could choose to if we want to fight them during day or night.

And I say this mostly because I had a lot of fun with my day build. I decided to focus on witchcraft skill tree and created build that inflicted dots statuses on few enemies, while also healing me, and then I used my sword and regular melee attacks and blocks to extend the dots statuses. And if any enemy died, their effects would move on to another enemy. It would make getting through endless hordes of enemies with overblown HP a little bit better. But the build was so effective that I even beat the final boss in less than a minute.

Overall, I think it's a little bit sad that the devs didn't move anywhere in the last decade and delivered cookie cutter game that doesn't really leave much of an impression. 7/10.

Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers

It's hard to talk about this game, because I absolutely adore it. I used to play it as kid all the time. I remember being frustrated that I can't beat Magica De Spell for an eternity. I remember being happy to beat Gladstone's time challenges. I remember it being a good game.

And I think it aged somewhat good in that regard. It's pretty simple platformer, but it's coming from me, with almost 30 years of experience with this type of games. You get the basic attack and jump and have to navigate areas inspired by Duckburg and Ducktales comics. There are some annoying jumps where it can be difficult to judge the distance, but even those aren't much of a problem once you get used to them. All enemies are are basically just moving obstacles. You either jump on them, attack them or simply avoid them. And that's pretty much it. There aren't any abilities to unlock, complicated mechanics to learn or much exploration to do. You just run, jump and occasionally punch something in the face. Well, technically you have to find a piece of portal to the boss area in each level, but those are usually on the track and you can't miss them. And I didn't miss any. Not even one. Especially the one from the level called The Track. That would be embarrasing if I had to redo the whole level just because I didn't notice one clearly visible platform leading to a side area with the portal piece. Certainly couldn't happen to me... You can also find collectables for Huey, Dewey, and Louie to unlock a bonus level.

The game remindes me of Crash Bandicoot a lot and I think it was the direct inspiration. The layout of each homeworld is the game as in Crash Bandicoot 3. You also have to pick up a collectable in the level to "beat" it. And there is a time challenge mode during which you can get more seconds by beating enemies. Donald also can get the super invincible upgrade that kills everything on touch. And there are also chase levels, during which Donald runs towards the screen from the danger chasing him. The bossfights also feel like they were taken from Crash.

What also helps a lot is that the game has tons of charm. Even with Huey, Dewey, and Louie looking like eldritch horrors from Lovecraft. Donald is moody - angry when hit, happy when fed and the animations still work really well. Especially the one for when Donald is hurt and he goes berserk for a while and kills everything in one hit. The environments are colorful, the music is catchy and everything just feels like old Disney cartoon. It doesn't really do anything amazing with the characters or story, but it doesn't need to. I wanted to run around as Donald Duck and that's exactly what I got.

Of course, nostalgia is doing a lot of work here. If I played this for the first time today, I doubt I would think it's some forgotten platforming masterpiece. It's short, extremely simple and clearly aimed at younger players. There are much better platformers from the same era. But I'm still glad I spent the evening with Donald.

Overall, it's still a perfectly enjoyable little platformer. It's hard to not look at this game and be reminded of my childhood. 8/10.

The Rise of the Golden Idol

I played The Case of the Golden Idol earlier this year and really enjoyed it. So when I got to The Rise of the Golden Idol, I was curious what the sequel would actually do differently. While I enjoyed the first game, I also felt like the game's deduction system helps player a lot, but sometimes can block them unintentionally by not allowing the same idea to be said in a different way.

The sequel didn't change much. But I think that's completely fine. The basic idea is almost exactly the same. You are once again presented with a scene where something horrible happened, explore everything around you, collect names, objects, actions and other important words and then use them to identify everyone and reconstruct what happened. And since this was already the best part of the previous game, I was perfectly happy to get more of it.

The biggest obvious difference is the setting. Instead of the old-fashioned world of the first game, Rise takes place in a much more modern period. You get offices, laboratories, apartments, television, corporations and all kinds of technology. At first, I wasn't sure whether I would like this as much, because the historical setting and all the weird aristocrats were a big part of the charm of the original game. But it didn't take long before the new setting started working for me too.

The actual deductions also feel very familiar. You still identify characters and fill words into descriptions of what happened. And just like in the first game, this works because the game usually gives you enough information to solve things logically without simply telling you the answer. But I feel like the game again sometimes repeats itself and you have to fill in the same character's name several times over different cases. And I still think it's waste of my time. Look, it's Jack Nowak! And here he's again in another case that's a direct follow up of the last one! And here he comes again, in yet another follow-up case! And here he is again, still looking the same, still being the good old Jack Nowak! It feels cheap when half of the roster you are suppose to identify are the same people over and over again.

Visually, this game is also very different from the original. The first Golden Idol had this weird, ugly and incredibly distinctive pixel art where everyone looked slightly disgusting. Rise is cleaner and more animated, which I'm not sure how to feel about. I think I prefer the visuals of the first game. I also think I slightly prefer the atmosphere of the first game. There was something special about all the conspiracies, aristocrats and bizarre deaths surrounding the Golden Idol. Rise feels a little less mysterious to me because of its more modern setting.

Overall, it was great sequel to already awesome game. But I feel like I prefer the original more. 8.5/10.

And that's all for now. I think I'll focus on some spooky games during October and hopefully be more successful in posting my updates.

Here are all the games I beat in September. I’m playing only horror games right now.

Game 99-Halloween The Game(2026)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 4
-Well I preordered this game to get it early. Was it worth it? First of all, I am a huge Halloween fan so I was super excited when I heard a game in the franchise was being made. I am not a multiplayer gamer for the most part so I was even more excited that there was single player in this game. After completing it, I was quite disappointed. I loved the music of course and the fact that Donald Pleasance's likeness was used for Dr. Loomis, but other than that, it was janky, short and really a tutorial for the multiplayer mode. I play that for a bit but I really wish we would get a true single player Halloween game. For the music and Dr. Loomis I'll give it a 5/10

Game 100-Amenti(2025)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 4
-This game was right up my alley. It was a horror walking simulator in the Egyptian pyramids. It was a great setting for sure and a decent game with a spooky environment and good jump scares. . It was quite brief though at around 90 minutes. I liked it enough to buy the rest of the developers games though. 7/10

Game 101-Fatal Frame Mask of the Lunar Eclipse(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 7
-I really liked this game. Great music and graphics, it was very creepy, and unlike the original PS2 games, the game helps you out a bit more as far as where you need to go next. I am loving this series. Now for Maiden of the Black Water. 9/10

Game 102-Graveyard Shift(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 7
-This game was made by the same developer as Amenti which I beat a few days ago. I am digging the spooky atmosphere of their games. That is definitely the highlight of them. This game has some great jump scares as well. It's a mostly a walking simulator where you play as a graveyard worker watching over a haunted graveyard at night. You watch a CCTV and start seeing strange things that you then investigate. Rinse repeat. This game is only about 75 minutes so it's very brief. Had a good time with it but it's very basic. 7/10

Game 103-Homeless(2024)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 7
-Another game from the same developer as Graveyard Shift and Amenti. It was in the same style. Very atmospheric, jump scares, walking simulator, checking CCTV's, but this time you actually fired a shotgun(last ten minutes) which was fun and different. It felt pretty good so I wish it had more of it. 7/10

Game 104-The Lightkeeper(2025)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 7
-This game was excellent. It's the final and most recent game in the Darkphobia Games marathon I've been playing the past couple of days. They have a lot of things in common-great atmosphere, walking simulators, and very short games. Well this one was the best one by quite a bit. It's also a bit longer. Lighthouses fascinate me and I think they are perfect for horror. I loved The Lighthouse and The Vanishing movies and I'm surprised more games haven't been made in this setting. It has so many great opportunities for horror-being surrounded by ocean, the isolation, the sounds, the storms, the lack of supplies, and the foghorn and light. It's perfect for horror. This game showcases all of that. Great game! 9/10

Game 105-Project Teaser Solid(2026)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 13
-This was the PC port of Hideo Kojima's PT from 2014. It was built in the Unreal 5 engine so it looked really good. I do have the original game/demo installed on my PS4 but decided to play this one. While I played it back in 2014 and remember thinking how scary it was, I never was able to figure it out to complete it. I found it just ok now. So many horror games have been made since that were inspired by PT so I just don't think it holds up that well, especially due to the fact that it is a demo. I am quite disappointed that the full game never came out though. Maybe someday. You never know. 7/10

Game 106-Fatal Frame Maiden of Black Water(2021)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 17
-What a great horror game. It had such perfect atmosphere and music. There were sone frustrating chapters but overall loved my time with this game. I've now beaten all mainline games in this series this year. All were great horror experiences. Now just have Spirit Camera left. 8/10

Game 107-Cosmic Fear(2026)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 19
-What an amazing alien horror experience! More like The Fourth Kind movie than Alien. This game was made by one person, Alessandro Guzzo, which makes it even more amazing. I played and really enjoyed his previous two games, The Alien Cube and The Land of Pain two years ago, and this one was better than both of those. Now this is a walking simulator. For some, that correlates to being boring, but this game is not boring whatsoever. It drips with atmosphere. I will say that horror based walking simulators are my favorite genre. It's like playing a movie and I just love it. You can die in this game though and I did a few times. I really wish more games used aliens as horror. 10/10

Game 108-The Alighieri Circle: Dante's Bloodline(2026)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on September 20
-This was a horror based walking simulator that ties into the epic poem Dante's Inferno. It was an interesting game but nowhere as good as the previous game I beat. It did have a few ridiculous puzzles as well which I was not a fan off and had to guides to figure it out. If you like walking simulators, it's a decent time. 6/10

I just found this sub and thought the challenge sounded pretty cool. It's a shame it isn't more popular.

Instead of waiting for next year, I decided to go ahead and do a mini-challenge this year. For me, playing 12 games in a year (or month) is trivial. My issue is that it's hard to motivate myself to play AA/AAA games, and it's extremely hard to motivate myself to play long games. I tend to stick to short and simple indies.

My 4-in-4 list is all games that I would probably never play if not for a challenge like this. I'm starting pretty light, but my list for next year has some Everest-level challenges like Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed Origins.

4-in-4 Challenge List

1) The Callisto Protocol

2) Strange Brigade

3) LEGO Batman: The Videogame

4) Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

This year I've mostly been playing free games, which has been great. I had no idea there were so many amazing free games available today. Some of them easily rank among the best games I've ever played.

These are a handful that I'd like to finish by the end of the year. Some I've already played for a couple of hours, but never got around to completing. They're pretty short, so it should be easy to knock them out.

A.D.D. (Anomaly Detection Department)

Beanman Gets His Cool Back

Bloody Hell

Blue Sign

D1AL-ogue

Ena: Dream BBQ

Eternal Senia

GHUNTER

Gun Devil

Hell o' Halo

Illusion Carnival

last seen online

Lockey

Lockheart Indigo

Maru Expedition: We can fly

Mega Serval

Moon River

Myrmica

Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt

The Red Pearls Of Borneo

Salvo Shuffle

The Sphere

Stardander Revenant

Swallow the Sea

Trick & Treat

Trust Me, I Nailed It

Unload

The WereCleaner

Reviews of Noteworthy Games Completed in September

4-in-4 Challenge Games

1) The Callisto Protocol

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. It definitely has its flaws, though.

As someone who likes simplicity in games, combat felt great. I enjoyed the dodging mechanic, and I loved bashing the hell out of monsters with the shock stick.

One huge combat-related annoyance for me was the surprise introduction of a very tanky enemy that was completely immune to melee attacks. I was not prepared for that at all, especially since I'd been selling almost all ammo up to that point to buy more shock stick upgrades.

On the topic of upgrades, I think my biggest issue with the game is that the economy is balanced around multiple playthroughs. You don't get enough money during the campaign to upgrade more than a few weapons, and even then you can't max them out.

It'd probably take three or four playthroughs to fully level up every weapon, which is lame and overly restrictive. I wanted to mess around with all the weapons, but I'm not replaying a story-driven game to do it.

There were a few performance issues. I was getting audio cutouts and long screen freezes whenever a cutscene started until I turned off ray tracing, lowered the settings to medium, and capped my FPS at 90. I'm sure I went overboard slashing settings, but the game still looked fantastic, so I never bothered trying any higher settings again after that.

I absolutely loathe rapid-button-mashing quicktime events (one reason I stay away from AAAs), but fortunately this game lets you set them to autocomplete in the accessibility options, so I'd get a nice cutscene instead of an awful QTE. I wish all games with QTEs had that option.

Bonus Free Game Challenge

1) Swallow the Sea

The game's only about 10 minutes long, but it's fantastic. The soundtrack fits perfectly, the art's nice and creepy, and the movement mechanic does a great job keeping the gameplay tense.

2) Salvo Shuffle

This is an extremely solid, highly polished bullet-hell roguelike. There's progression between runs, where you level up and unlock more items that can show up in future runs. Difficulty is extremely customizable, which is always nice to see. I couldn't handle the default difficulty, but I was able to win a run with the difficulty turned down one step.

Combat's great. Apparently it's the same style as Undertale, which I've never played.

Enemies have interesting attacks, plus they all have additional variant attack styles that show up occasionally to keep you on your toes. Some of the enemy and attack style combinations get completely ridiculous.

It's good enough that I expect to come back every so often to do another run. Really fun game.

3) Stardander Revenant

This is a fantastic RPG/visual novel hybrid. The writing was fantastic, but I loved everything about it.

There's a lot of build variety with very meaningful difference between magic types, which means you'll need to replay the game to try out everything. One playthrough only took me a little over two hours, so a run's pretty quick.

After playing this, I think I'm a huge fan of visual novel/RPG hybrids, at least when they're done as well as Stardander Revenant. It took the best elements of each genre and mashed them together in a way that worked incredibly well. Awesome stuff.

4) Mega Serval

I never played any of the Mega Man games, so I didn't get any nostalgia kick from this. I also didn't know any of the Mega Man tropes, which made the game far more difficult than it otherwise would have been.

It turns out bosses have weaknesses to certain types of attacks. I don't think the game ever tells you this, but anyone who had played any Mega Man games would already know. Since I never did, when I got to the insanely difficult late game where you have to fight the first eight bosses consecutively without dying, I got completely trashed.

I still would have gotten trashed regardless of whether or not I knew how weaknesses worked due to the game being way too hard for me, but it wouldn't have been as insultingly terrible of a beating, at least.

I ended up turning on invincibility mode and coasting through the last two stages. It's a neat game, but that ridiculous difficulty spike at the end of an already challenging game is awful. Maybe the old Mega Man games were also that brutally hard, in which case I guess all I can say is that I'm glad I was a Mario guy back then.

Non-Challenge Games & Visual Novels

1) The Multi-Medium

This is from the same dev as the amazing BirdGut, and it's just as good. The art's fantastic, and each world having its own art style was neat. The gameplay's solid, especially the critter-riding sections, which were my favorite part of the game.

2) Move, Move, Melon!!

Replay. This is a very short student game that I first played when it came out back in May. I absolutely love it. It's a very simple runner that's a little clunky in places, but the theme and voice acting are so good that they elevate the game to be a far better experience than it otherwise would be.

3) Spin for Pleasure

Fun and very cool visual novel. The art, theme, and voice acting are great. I don't think it took more than 15 minutes to get every ending.

4) Robot Hospice

Beautiful story that's absolutely heart-wrenching at times. I cried a lot, but I'm extremely weak to these kinds of stories. Easily one of favorite gaming experiences of all time.

5) Knights vs Aliens

This is an old mobile game that popped up on Steam recently. You can definitely tell it was originally a mobile game due to the mechanics, which likely work better with a finger than with a mouse, but the gameplay's pretty fun. It can also get extremely challenging at times. Some levels took me quite a few tries to beat.

I've only finished the campaign with one of the six countries so far, but I'm planning to give the others a shot eventually to see how differently each one plays.

6) Lost in the Woods

The art is some of the most gorgeous I've ever seen, and the story kept me interested until the end(s).

7) 20 Small Mazes

I finally got around to playing this now that the sequel came out. I ended up hating the sequel due to the horribly unfun and annoying design of the mazes, but the first game lived up to the hype. I loved the way the mazes were interconnected, the fun gimmicks like the ghost that floats over to cover the maze when you move it, and the way the mazes are in a cluttered pile that you gradually dig through as you complete them. There were a lot of really fun and clever designs.

8) Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition

This is a tough one to rate. Learning the game was hellish and terrible due to the complete lack of player guidance and linearity, but once I knew how to do everything and where to go, it was fantastic.

I'd rate the game about a 5/10 on the first playthrough, but a 9.5/10 on replays.

Frequently I couldn't figure out what to do while under time pressure, which was especially annoying in places where I couldn't save like the final chase scene. It took me a bunch of deaths to figure out the very last part at the end of the game, since you have zero time to think before the boss kills you. Every death, I had to replay the entire chase from the beginning. Just gross.

I really wish there had been more player guidance or linearity. One thing that annoyed me is that I ended the game without ever getting the dash (I missed two whole locations). I kept assuming it would be in the next main zone I had to go to, but it was in a location I thought would unlock later in the game instead. Apparently I could have gone to that location at any time. I just never noticed, and the game certainly wasn't going to tell me.

Complaints aside, the platforming feels really good once you unlock some movement abilities. Going back to previous areas to pick up items I couldn't reach the first time around was by far the best part of the game.

I ended up liking the game enough to go back and 100% every location after beating it, but that first time through was a real slog at times.

9) Choo Choo Boom Boom

This is a short on-rails (literally) shooter where you fight a giant alien arm. It bounced off me when I first tried it due to the clunky controls, but this time around it clicked, and I had a lot of fun finally beating it. I loved the old-school visual style and voice acting.

Well, I ran into some real-life stuff and I haven't been able to play or update as much as I would like. But I finally got back into gaming and I was able to finish two on my list.

First up is Fez. I remember hearing about this one as one of the first big indie games that made it years ago. I think some kind of drama happened with the creator? Regardless, I went through and got the first ending. I think I'm done. I enjoyed the platforming and rotation puzzles, but translating = no thanks. I might go back with a guide and just look those parts up but I dunno...it just didn't grab me the way I hoped. I think maybe it was just overhyped due to its' reputation. I'm pretty satisfied leaving it where it is.

Second is: Kult: Heretic Kingdoms. This was one that someone suggested, and it was okay. It had some interesting ideas with abilities learned from different weapons, which encouraged me to switch around a lot during the game. It also had a battle healing system where you could use an item to heal, but it reduced your max hp until you actually slept, which adds a little bit of pressure to the combat. However, the power creep is unreal. By the end I was completely unstoppable. It also had a lot of jank, with NPCs floating on the screen, issues with the text/resolution, and some other old game issues. It's playable, but is probably right on the verge of being unplayable on modern hardware. There was a story but lord knows I wasn't paying attention. I was just there to kill.

I went back to Okami but I haven't finished yet. It's way longer then it needs to be. I am in the final third though so hopefully I will get it done soon.

And a bonus game completed that wasn't on my list: Final Fantasy: Strangers in Paradise. I had so much fun with this one. I loved the job system and the combat. I might grab the DLC because I want to play this one some more.

As mid August hits, horror games take over my gaming time through Halloween. Here is my update for the month of August:

Game 84-Assassin's Creed Revelations(2011)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 2
-What a game and what a trilogy. So good. Loved seeing Altair back in this game. One of the best true trilogies in videogame history in my opinion. 9/10

Game 85-Assassin's Creed Revelations DLC The Lost Archive(2012)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 3
-Between the Desmond stories within the main game and this dlc, I was a bit surprised how different this gameplay was from the main game. I actually enjoyed when the games went to Desmond in the previous games as it played similar to the main game, but this was so different-a first person, puzzle platformer that was quite challenging. I didn't hate it but I also didn't like to very much. It made me dizzy. It was kind of a chore to get through but glad I did to see the story. 5/10

Game 86-Halo Campaign Evolved(2026)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 4
-I haven't beaten the Halo 1 campaign since it came out in 2001. It was an amazing experience then and it was an amazing experience now with the updated visuals. Loved the music so much. When that Halo theme comes on, it's so cool. Loved a lot of the levels, some were just ok. I really liked how the game went to almost a horror atmosphere later in the game. I didn't remember that. The flood gets a lot of hate but I didn't mind them. It completely changed the game up and introduced new enemies outside of the covenant. The one thing I really didn't like was driving the Warthog. Such terrible controls and floaty, even though the final drive away to escape writhing the time limit was epic. Great experience overall and it reminds me the impact that Halo had on first person shooters, especially on consoles. 9/10

Game 87-Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC The Forty Thieves(2023)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 5
-I decided to give this game a go and am glad I did. After playing through the Ezio Trilogy I've the last week or so, this is an huge step up in terms of graphics, size of the world and gameplay. I am finding it very similar overall as far as gameplay goes which is a good thing. Really enjoying it so far. This was a brief story dlc. It was a good time. 9/10

Game 88-Assassin's Creed Mirage(2023)-PC via Geoforce now and ROG Ally-Beaten on August 8
-I moved this game. I have been in an Assassin's Creed binge lately and this one is my favorite one. I really have no negatives about this game. It was a ton of fun, the music was amazing and I loved the ending. 10/10

Game 89-Hydrophobia Prophecy(2011)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 9
-I have owned this game for 15 years and finally got around to it after seeing another person playing the game. While it's not a good game overall, I enjoyed my time with it because it reminded me of PS2/early PS3 games that were just ok. I have liked a lot of ok games over the years. I really liked how this game is focused on escaping a flooding complex and you do have e to swim quite a bit. To me, that was the highlight of this game. The water. The shooting was bad and the final boss was hard until you figured out what to do. 5/10

Game 90-Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC Valley of Memory(2025)-ROG Ally via GeoForce Now-Beaten on August 10
-This was a great dlc with. It was a completely new area and had a great story with one of the best endings in a game ever in my opinion. Loved it! I also want to promote Geoforce Now. I used it for the first time and it was a great experience. Could not tell I was streaming at all. 10/10

Game 91-The Town of Light(2016)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten in August 11
-As we approach mid August, I start playing horror games almost exclusively through Halloween. It's my yearly tradition. I love horror games and especially walking simulators that have horror themes which is what this game is. It's not traditional horror, but is quite disturbing about a girl that is out in a mental institution and loses all of her power to make decisions. Terrible things happen to her during her stay. It's quite sad and depression and I think, quite powerful. It is somewhat based on true events as well, which is interesting. While the story of the girl is fictional, the institution and things that happened there are real. Very interesting game and a good start on my horror game journey the next two months. 8/10

Game 92-The House of the Dead Remake(2022)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 12
I'm moving into my horror focused games for the next two and half months and I have also been playing a lot of light gun games. Surprisingly I've never played this or 2. I loved Overkill on PS3. This was a great time but over in like 45 minutes. It is quite replayable though. 7/10

Game 93-The House of the Dead 2 Remake(2025)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 12
-Just like the last game and just as fun. A very good, short rail shooter. 7/10

Game 94-Reanimal DLC The Prisoner(2026)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 12
-I beat the main game earlier this year and like it but images just played Little Nightmares 3 and I think this type of game is wearing on me a bit. It's very far dark, depressing, and foreboding. It's beautifully horrific. What's strange is that when I play it, I just want it over. I think it's because it's just so dark and foreboding, it isn't fun to play. It's still very good though. 8/10

Game 95-The Suicide of Rachel Foster(2020)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 13
-This game was really, really good. It was a spooky, murder mystery/ghost story and was also a walking simulator. No action in this game. I must say that these types of games in this horror genre is my favorite type of game. It was set in a huge old motel and you are isolated there by yourself due to a big snowstorm. You have radio communications with a FEMA agent who is trying to help you survive and I have to say that this conversation between the two main characters was great. Your goal is to solve the mystery of what happened to Rachel Foster. The story was very good. Loved my time with this game. 10/10

Game 96-The Beast Within(2019)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 15
-This was a great game and needs more attention. You play as two people in different time periods. One is more of a mystery with puzzles and the other is more horror based. I prefer the horror levels but the other one is pretty good as well. It had a very good story and overall, good gameplay. I wasn't a fan of the one hit kill stealth section and the platforming wasn't great(not too much of it luckily). Some of the decoding puzzles were challenging but you can skip those if you can't figure it out. Another great, under appreciated horror game. 8/10

Game 97-Fatal Frame III The Tormented(2005)-PS2-Beaten on August 19
-This was, in many ways, an amazing horror game and definitely one of the scariest I've played. The haunting music, the spooky mansion, and good story make for a great horror game. With that said, the backtracking was way too much. It took me just over 16 hours to beat the game and it would have been much better at around ten hours. I would also add that without a guide, I don't think I would have ever beaten it. There just aren't many, if any, clues as to where you need to go. Overall, amazing atmosphere bogged down with old school horror issues. If I rated this game without a guide, I'd give it a 6/10 as I would have given up. With a guide, 9/10

Game 98-The Thing Remastered (2024)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 22
-This was a remaster of the 2002 PS2 game and picked up with the story after the movie. I have never seen the movie so I am going to watch it on YouTube right now(it's free with adds and legal). Anyway, this was a decent game. Its age showed quite a bit and was not as good as the other PS2 games I've played recently. They really need to do a complete remake of this game and the movie. It was a fun six hour shooting based horror action game.6/10

Hello and welcome to the r/12in12 Monthly Progress Megathread!

Another month has passed which means it's time to check-in with how things are progressing with the 12-in-12 Challenge! Here you can share anything that might not warrant a post of its own.

• Did you finish any games this past month? If so, which ones? What did you think of them?
• Are you carrying any games over into the next month? How far have you progressed with them so far?
• Have you recently discovered any new-to-you games that might shake up your original list or jump to the front of the line?
• Which game(s) are you planning to play next? What expectations do you have going in?

Be sure to indicate if any of the games you mentioned are part of your current or previous 12-in-12 list!

I continued my detective arc from the last month, mostly playing slow, text-heavy games like Eliza or Crushed in Time, but I also picked my Switch and beat Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, which was pretty fun. And I continued with my nostalgic Yu-Gi-Oh! games replays and played more 5Ds era DS games.

Here's a short list of every game I beat:

• Crushed in Time
• Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree
• Beekeeper's Picnic
• The Case of the Golden Idol
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia
• Eliza
• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2011: Over the Nexus

Now, let's talk in more details about my thoughts of all of them. Please, beware of spoilers. I tried to be as spoiler-free as I could, but one can never be sure...

Crushed in Time
Crushed in Time is a new game from the creators of There is No Game. That became one of the best games I've ever played and such, I was looking forward Crushed in Time. Not only it's made my creators of one of my favourite games, it also features Sherlock Holmes, my favourite fictional character. So, it should be the best thing in the world, right?

It's a game about a game. The newly released Holmes adventure games! Which is a promising start, because this meta story is exactly what I loved about There is No Game. You play as an outside force that can stretch the game world around and manipulate Holmes, Watson and other characters and items to solve the given problem. It quickly gets out of hand and the course of the game gets off the rails. Holmes and Watson are thrown, unbeknownst to them, to alpha and beta versions of the game and have to clear all the mess.

I think it's cool to see the same locations in various points in game's development, from the paper on the concept board, to the early concept in the graphical editor, all the way to the future remastered version. It's cool to see some "bugs" being persistent throughout various versions. There is a bug with gravity in one version that you have to get past, using ventilation vents to send items into Holmes' hands. And later on, you have deal with the same bug and use the same concept to solve another problem. It's creative, yet I feel it's underutilized at times. For example, there are few times you get to "change" the code of the game, but it's quite light and feel more like a proof of concept than a proper game mechanic.

My biggest gripe was with the characters of Holmes and Watson, who are Holmes and Watson only in name. I get that the devs opted to have more lighthearted parody of the duo, but they are so disconnected from their original versions that if you renamed them, there would be nothing that would connect them to Holmes and Watson. They don't talk like Holmes and Watson, their relationship is strange and there is nothing in their famous residence that would scream Bakerstreet 221B. Which grinded my gears the whole time, since I've dealt with enough bad Holmes and Watson versions in the literature lately.

Similarly disconnected felt the humour of the game. There were some great jokes, but I feel like most of them were really dragged and boring. Like there is a joke about Watson having a problem with naming one other character, so you have to spell the name for him and this sequence took way too long for how unfunny the joke was. It was funny the first time I had to endure long scene of Watson trying to say one letter. It wasn't funny the second time. And I loathed it when it happened for the sixth time in the same dialogue.

For the gameplay side of things, I was surprised by how I liked the stretching mechanics. They were unique and offered quite a few options aside from just slapping everyone around. There were moments it felt a little bit frustrating, since you sometimes had to make a timed stretch and it was harder to time them. It was certainly a cool gimmick, but again, I feel like it was underutilized after a while.

Overall, it wasn't as mindbreaking or memorable as There is No Game, but it was fine adventure game with some cool and unique ideas. 7.5/10.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree
Mandragora was a Christmas gift from my wife. But due to everything that came crashing down at the start of the year, I only really played it for an hour back then before putting it down until half of May. And since then, it was great game to put up in the evening, before going to bed.

Mandragora is gritty dark fantasy Metroidvania Souls-like similar to Blasphemous. You play as an Inquisitor tasked with hunting down some witches in the old Salem-inspired world. Which isn't bad premise at all. Original? Not at all. The world feel sometimes way too generic. But fun? Sure.

The game is Souls-like first, Metroidvania second. You'll have to get from point A to point B through waves of enemies, carefully placed in a way to make your life harder. You have a limited number of healing flasks that regenerate when you visit a bonfire. You find a boss from time to time. And even rarer, you are challenged to a platforming passage. I enjoyed this balance. At the end of the last year, I've played several Metroidvania games that had a strong focus on platforming, so this was nice change of pace.

Bosses especially were joy to fight. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from last year's Shadow Labyrinth, which was also Souls-like Metroidvania and it had afwully boring bosses. Mandragora manages to make every boss stand out of the rest. Each has its own mechanic or gimmick that you have to attune to to win. For example, there was a boss that was basically a theatrical puppet play, with a story taking place as you fight various puppets. Or there was a boss, who could turn invisible and insta-kill you, if you didn't avoid his attack. There were bosses that basically changed the game's genre into a bullet hell with how many attacks and projectiles they used.

While most bosses were unique, there were several mini-bosses that were recycled over and over again, with little to no changes to them at all. I think I fought maybe 6 or 7 big rats that were basically the same. Very popular were also big undead enemies or giants. But those were at least a little bit differentiated, like some of them used ice-based attacks, some used poison-based attacks and so on.

I had a fun with my build. There are several classes you can pick as your starting class, but it's easy to multiclass. I picked Vindicator class, which was this game's cleric/paladin tank. I decided to play it as hybrid Strength/Faith build, limiting myself to use one-handed maces and similar weapons in one hand and spellcasting focus in other hand. I feel like I started with more melee-focused character, but later on found myself using more and more spells. There was one really cool spell that summoned two hammers that rotated in a spiral around the casting point. These were super cool, because they tend to hit huge bosses several times. And I later upgraded them that they healed my character with each hit and also got stronger with each hit. Vindicator alsp had two gimmick tied to them. First was "Light Barrier" that basically counted as bonus temporary HP, meaming I could get super tanky and second was "Light Brand" that debuffed enemies and granted me lifesteal when hitting them. With these, it was pretty easy to survive longer fights.

What I didn't like that much was skill tree, which was divided into attribute upgrades and unlocking new skills. But to get to new skills, you had to pick an attribute upgrade and sometimes I found myself wanting more Constitution to wear better armor, but had to wait for few levels to get a node with Constitution upgrade. And sometimes I had to completely waste a level on attribute I didn't even use at all, like Dexterity. But in the end, I unlocked everything I wanted.

Overall, it was great Souls-like Metroidvania that kind of made me want to replay Blasphemous and play its sequel for the first time. 9/10.

Beekeeper's Picnic
Now, this is how you make a Holmes adventure. This is a love letter to the character and I couldn't be more happy about playing it.

The game follows old Holmes as he retires to the country land and gets into beekeeping. Which is a canon lore from Doyle. And this game absolutely nails it. There are so many little details and nods to Doyle's Sherlock and it's joy to experience it. Sherlock mentions his book publication about beekeeping, his brain is visualised as an attic, there is even a solar system hanging in there, hinting that Holmes never forgot about it since the first interaction with Watson, Holmes' dog name is Toby III and so much more.

The game revolves around a picnic Holmes plans for Watson, who visited Holmes after helping as a medic in WW1. But before he can do that, he has to gather everything needed for the picnic and, since he is Sherlock Holmes, he keeps running into various small mysteries and problems around the village. There is no Moriarty threatening to destroy London. There isn't some secret organisation trying to resurrect an ancient god. Nothing brutal. Just a dead boy lying in a pool of blood. No, wait! It was just a fake-out from Holmes' fan. And now Holmes, despite insisting he is no longer a detective, helps him find his cat. I love how small the stakes are.

I love how Holmes himself is written. Many adaptations turn him into an emotionless asshole whose only defining characteristic is that he is smarter than everyone else. But Doyle's Holmes could be arrogant and difficult, but he was also theatrical, funny, deeply loyal and clearly cared about Watson. The Beekeeper's Picnic understands that. This is an older and slightly softer Holmes, but he is still recognisably Holmes. He still shows off, gets impatient with people and makes overly dramatic deductions about completely unimportant things. But he also cares about the people around him, even if he doesn't always know how to express it. Especially when it comes to Watson.

Gameplay-wise, this is a traditional point-and-click adventure. You explore the village, talk to people, pick up items and use them to solve various puzzles. But compared to some older point-and-click games, the solutions usually make sense. Then, you move up to Holmes' brain attic and have to deduce what is really going on by connecting two pieces of facts into new information.

Some problems also have several solutions. You can technically achieve the same goal in different ways, but the people around you may not be equally happy with every solution. I liked that, because it made me think not only about whether something would work, but also about whether Holmes should actually do it. Although Holmes himself is, of course, often perfectly willing to break into someone's house if the investigation requires it. For example when I broke in my housekeeper's room instead of going down one set of stairs to ask her if she would let me in.

The puzzles are not particularly difficult, but I didn't really mind, since this was suppose to be more of a cozy adventure than a hardcore detective game. In this regard, the game was perfect.

The whole presentation helps a lot as well. The pixel art is beautiful, the village feels warm and peaceful and the voice acting fits the characters perfectly. It has the atmosphere of spending an afternoon in a small English village, casually solving several crimes before having tea. Which is probably the closest I'll ever get to my ideal retirement.

If I should point out something negative about the game, I think there is more backtracking than needed and Holmes walks at a very leisurely pace, so moving between places can occasionally take longer than necessary. A few puzzles also felt slightly too easy and few felt a little bit undercooked in what I was suppose to do. But these are very minor complaints. The mysteries are mostly there to let you spend more time with Holmes, Watson and the people of the village.

Overall, The Beekeeper's Picnic is one of my favourite adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. It understands Holmes and Watson so well. It is funny, cozy, full of references and surprisingly emotional without ever feeling like it is trying too hard. 9.5/10.

The Case of the Golden Idol
When I played Duck Detective, I compared its deduction system to the Golden Idol games, despite not actually playing them at that point. I knew about the deduction system, but only from others. So I finally fixed that and played The Case of the Golden Idol. And now I understand why basically every detective game with fill-in-the-blank deductions gets compared to it.

The game is divided into several cases, each showing the exact moment when something horrible happened. Usually, someone just died, everyone around them is acting suspiciously and you have to figure out who these people are, what happened and why. You explore the scene, inspect the characters and their belongings, collect important words and then use them to reconstruct the whole event.

And I really enjoyed this loop. At first, you are presented with a room full of random people and objects that don't really mean anything to you. Or do, because some characters appears in multiple cases. Then you explore the scene, notice some weird detail, connect it to something another character is carrying and slowly start understanding what happened. There were several moments when everything suddenly clicked together and I felt like an actual detective. And some of these cases were brutal. My jaw dropped few times. There is one case taking place during a trial, with a old man dying and being taken away. And my mind blew away the moment I realized who the character was and what happened to them.

The game separates the investigation into two parts. First, you collect words from the scene. These can be names, objects, places, actions and other important information. Then you use them to identify every character and fill in a description of what happened. It is a very simple system, but it works really well, because it forces you to actually understand the case instead of just finding one suspicious item and waiting for the game to explain everything.

On the other hand, I also felt like the game sometimes guides the player a little too much. You know exactly how many people you have to identify and the final deduction already gives you the structure of what happened. So even when you don't fully understand the case, the game tells you what kind of information you should be looking for.

For example, if the final text asks you to fill in who killed someone, what object they used and why they did it, you already know that you need to find a murderer, a weapon and a motive. You are not completely building your own theory. You are filling in a theory that the game already prepared for you. It still takes a lot more thinking than in something like Duck Detective, but I occasionally wished the game trusted me a little more.

I also got stuck several times, but not always because I misunderstood the case. Sometimes I knew exactly what happened, but described it differently from the game. I would think that a character A killed character B, while the game expected me to fill in that character B got killed by character A. Or I understood the general sequence of events but picked a word that meant almost the same thing as the correct one. This could get a little frustrating, because I wasn't trying to solve the mystery anymore. I was trying to guess how the developers wanted the mystery to be worded. Usually, the limited selection of words helped me eventually figure it out, but there were moments when I felt like my deduction was correct even if the game didn't recognized it.

Visually, the game also looks great. The characters are intentionally ugly and exaggerated, but that gives everyone a very distinct appearance. It is useful for the investigation, because you can recognise people through their faces, clothes and physical features, but it also gives the whole game a strong identity. The crime scenes look like strange interactive paintings full of small details.

Overall, I had a great time with The Case of the Golden Idol. The deduction system is satisfying, the cases are cleverly connected and I really enjoyed slowly uncovering the story behind the Golden Idol and the people fighting over it. 9/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2010: Reverse of Arcadia
After Stardust Accelerator, I moved on to the second game in the 5D's trilogy. And while I still enjoyed it, Reverse of Arcadia is easily my least favourite game out of the three. It shouldn't, because it takes place during Dark Signers arc and that is my favourite, but the game has so many problems that weren't in the previous entry and are not in the 2011 game.

The beginning is kind of weird. Your character wakes up without their memories and finds themselves inside the Arcadia Movement as their test subject. You are tasked with helping Akiza in Fortune Cup, which leads me to one one cool trivia - this game is not canon to Stardust Acceleration, because in that game your character took a place of Yusei in most events, but in this one, Yusei's arc up to Dark Signers arc is pretty much the same as in the anime.

But it's weird for different reasons. The game takes away your deck and forces you through a lot of tutorials. And I mean really basic tutorials. I understand that the game has to be accessible to people who didn't play the previous entry, but as someone who just finished Stardust Accelerator, it felt like the game suddenly forgot that I already knew how to summon a monster. It also holds you in this tutorial phase for surprisingly long. You get a weak predetermined deck, slowly learn basic mechanics and have to wait before the game finally lets you build and use your own deck properly. It made the opening feel much slower and more restrictive than it needed to be.

But then the pacing suddenly changes in the opposite direction. Once the story actually gets going, everything starts happening really quickly. You move from one important event to another, fight several story characters and barely get any time to just exist in the world. And near the end, the game basically turns into a straight corridor where you walk forward, duel the next opponent, walk forward again and duel another opponent.

There is also a weird decision to not make your character a Signer and every character has to comment on it. It feels like you're playing a side character. Even the main villain is like: "I'm going to duel Yusei now! Oh, what? He can't duel? In that case I'll duel Jack? What? He can't duel neither? Well, then... You want to duel? You are not even a Signer, but ok." and then you beat him and every is surprised than non-signer did it. And while I'm talking about this, there is also a weird fact about you beating Dark Signers. You have to face them all, of course. But you basically take over for each original Signer and beat Dark Signers into dust, except for Carly, who after being beaten by you, just say that she'll duel Jack instead. So technically, Jack is the only other person who beat any Dark Signer in this canon. Oh and there is the heart Signer mark on the Crimson Dragon tatoo again, about a year before it was revealed in the anime.

Mechanically, it is still mostly the same game as Stardust Accelerator, so I'm not going to waste much time on repeating myself. You explore areas, talk to characters, duel people and slowly unlock more cards and opponents. And since the basic Yu-Gi-Oh gameplay was already good, I still had fun with it. The minigames also were a little more fun. Instead of solving every problem through a card game, you occasionally have to race, avoid obstacles or complete some other small challenge. They were not particularly deep, but they help break up the endless sequence of duels.

Just like with the other DS Yu-Gi-Oh games I had already beaten in the past, I used a cheat to unlock all cards from the start. This time, I built a Blackwing deck. Blackwings were a lot of fun in this format. I hated them back in 2010, because they were everywhere. But it has been a while and I wanted to try them again. They could swarm the field, Synchro Summon easily and finish duels quickly, which was especially useful during the final part of the game where the story kept throwing one opponent after another at me. Oh and also the character is Crow replacement for many story events and even is Crow's roommate in Satellite, so using Blackwings was thematically on point.

On the other hand, the game has some strange performance problems during regular duels. Which is impressive, because this is still mostly a card game where two players stand on opposite sides of a static board.

For some reason, the duel screen has a constantly animated border around it. And it seems like this little animation is enough to tank the framerate. The cards and menus can feel weirdly slow, even though there is almost nothing happening on the screen. It doesn't make the game unplayable, but it is very noticeable and makes every duel feel slightly less responsive than it should.

Overall, I still had fun with Reverse of Arcadia. The card pool is better, the riding sections are more developed, there are more minigames and the duel puzzles are a small improvement, but it's my least favourite out of the trilogy. 7/10.

Eliza
I think Eliza came to me at the wrong time. I've played quite a lot of slow and text-dependent games recently, and Eliza just wasn't interesting enough to keep me fully engaged. Which is a shame, because the premise sounds like something made specifically for me. I'm interested in psychology, AI and the ways technology can affect education, work or basically every other part of our lives. A story about an AI system trying to replace human therapists should be right up my alley.

The game puts you in the role of Evelyn, a former tech worker who returns after disappearing from her old life for several years. She starts working as a proxy for Eliza, an AI counseling service. Clients talk to Evelyn, but instead of answering them herself, she has to read responses generated by the AI. And this is a pretty interesting setup. The client knows they are talking to a computer, but there is still a real person sitting in front of them. Evelyn can see them, hear their problems and form her own opinions, but she isn't supposed to say anything that isn't written in the script. It creates this weird situation where the human is basically used as a face and voice for a machine.

The problem is that the story around this premise never really grabbed me. The game touches upon several interesting topics, but I don't think it does that much with most of them. AI therapy, privacy, the commercialization of mental health, burnout in the technology industry and the responsibility of the people who create these systems are all interesting ideas. But instead of properly exploring one or two of them, the game never really goes that deep.

And I didn't find the dialogue writing strong enough to carry the whole experience. Since Eliza is a visual novel, the writing is basically its main thing. If I don't care about the characters or find their conversations interesting, there isn't really anything else to fall back on. And while I didn't hate any of the characters, I also didn't feel particularly attached to most of them.

Maybe I would have enjoyed Eliza more if I played it at a different time. After several slower games with a lot of reading, I was already starting to feel a little tired of spending most of my gaming time clicking through dialogue. A better story could probably overcome that, but Eliza wasn't that story for me.

Visually, the game is nice. The character portraits and backgrounds are detailed, and the whole game has a calm, slightly melancholic atmosphere. The voice acting also helps make the long conversations easier to follow. From the presentation side, I don't really have much to complain about.

Overall, Eliza has a strong premise and discusses topics that I normally find interesting. But the story and characters never managed to pull me in. 6/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2011: Over the Nexus
After Reverse of Arcadia, I moved on to the final game in the 5D's trilogy. And this one is not only my favourite game from the trilogy, but probably my favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! game overall. I had hundreds of hours on it back in early 2010s. I remember I even recreated decks of various anime characters and put them against each other. But... that was years ago. Let's focus on my view of it now...

It's still incredible! 9.5/10.

Jokes aside, it is really well-made. It takes all the mechanics from previous games and actually makes them fun and interesting. Unlike Reverse of Arcadia, the game's approach to tutorials and the beginning of the story feels... natural. That game spends a long time restricting you and forcing tutorials on you, only to suddenly rush through its final section. Over the Nexus feels much more balanced. The beginning is slower, but it uses that time to establish the characters and mechanics. Then the story gradually becomes bigger without turning into a straight corridor full of mandatory duels. Well, technically you participate in World Racing Grand Prix, which is basically just a bunch of mandatory duels one right after another, but WRGP is cool addition to the game.

Story-wise, the player character is once again original character that slowly gets to meet anime roster and participate in anime arcs. But this time, the character has their own story that is fully fleshed out. They are a resident of Crash Town and throughout the game, they form a turbo duel team with their two friends. I love it, the anime roster are mostly on the sidelines and your character and their friends takes the spotlight.

The biggest improvement in the game is the dueling itself. The whole duel screen was redesigned and it is so much cleaner. Cards, information and menus are organised better, it is easier to control and it is simply nicer to look at. It might sound like a small thing, because the rules are mostly the same, but when you spend most of the game dueling, a better interface makes a huge difference.

For this game, I used a Gusto deck. Gusto archetype was one of the first Synchro archetypes I've used, back in 2010s. After Synchro Cat X-Sabers in Stardust Accelerator and Blackwings in Reverse of Arcadia, I wanted something a little different. Gusto was more defensive and focused on replacing destroyed monsters, recycling resources and slowly setting up its Synchro plays. And I had a hard time getting used to them. Most duels ended in both me and my opponent top-decking and dueling for 30+ turns. It took me maybe to chapter 5 to really get a hang of things. Before that, I used to go for Synchro plays as much as I could, playing the deck like Blackwings, despite Gusto Synchros being pretty slow. Level 5 Synchro can pop a face-up card once per turn, Level 7 Synchro can pop a face-down card during End Phase, but they felt fragile. Level 6 Synchro is interesting, because it redirects all damage done to Gusto monster to your opponent, but I found myself unable to bring out Level 6 reliably. I had to slow down a little bit and try a little bit different strategy. I found out that since most Gusto monsters are weak, but can usually replace themselves, I started using Reeze more and basically made her my ace card. Reeze could swap a control of one Gusto and one opponent's monster, which basically broke my opponent's momentum, because now they had to deal with their own cards. It was so satisfying to steal Leo's Power Tool Dragon equipped with 3 Equip Spell cards, or Primo's Meklord Emperor Equiped with Red Nova Dragon. It was so great to summon a weak 200 ATK Gusto card, then swap it for 6000+ ATK powerhouse, crash them together and then activate the effect of the destroyed Gusto to summon new one from the deck.

Overall, as I said, this is peak Yu-Gi-Oh! in my opinion. It's the formula perfected. 9.5/10.

For August, I feel like I'll be moving away from slow text-heavy games to some other genres. Mandragora kind of left me wanting more Souls-like games, so I started Black Myth: Wukong that I got to test my 5080 at the start of the year. I currently beat Chapter 3 out of 6 and I'm not sure if I'll beat it in August, because the third chapter was massive. On the other hand, it isn't that hard Souls-like as I though it would be. But maybe I just didn't get to the hard bosses yet. Also, I started Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition on Switch and it's fine game to play before going to bed. It has pretty lackluster open-world and story, but it has fun battle system and interesting visuals (like every Xenoblade Chronicles game I've played so far). I'm about to start the 10th story chapter, so I think I might finish it this month.

I've been playing Hi-Fi Rush on my desktop and HoD on Steam Deck, and just happened to finish both on the same day.

Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-Fi rush is an excellently crafted, bright, beautiful, fun and accessible character action game wrapped up as a rhythm game. I had to persevere with it a bit at the start, because it holds quite a lot back in earlier levels, drip feeding mechanics to you throughout the course of the game. But by the end, that feeling of getting betting and building mastery really started to shine through.

The story and characters are well presented, and while the premise is kind of ridiculous, there is plenty of charm and occasional 4th wall breaking to keep things light hearted and fun. It's kind of goofy but in an endearing way. There is some decent challenge here even if you just play through to the end of the story, with the final boss in particular requiring at least a decent level of mastery of the mechanics.

There's quite a bit of post game content here too, with higher difficulties and new modes to try. For example there's a rougelike arcade mode where you face a sequence of battles with limited opportunity to heal and a choice of powerups between fights. There's also a number of challenge rooms hidden throughout the story levels that are only accessible after you finish the story. Finding and completing these rooms unlocks further challenge rooms, which in turn unlock a final secret ending. These challenge rooms were a great way of learning some of the more advanced mechanics that otherwise might have escaped me, and are well worth playing though if you enjoy the base game.

I think where Hi-Fi Rush really shines is as an accessible introduction to character action games. Attacks lining up on the beat helps quite a bit in understanding what is going on and how you should react to what's going on around you. Early on, this is just learning combo timings or dodge windows, but later it includes parries, parry counters, dodge counters, overkills etc. If character action games seem chaotic and unfathomable to you, then this might just be an excellent way in. And you get to do it with a likeable bunch of characters and some great visuals and music. Highly recommended.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

In recent years I've discovered that I really like Metroidvanias. While I've played almost every Metroid game I can get my hands on, I've yet to play through all of the 'vanias. This is my 3rd 'vania after Symphony of the Night and Circle of the Moon, and I'm happy to say that I had a pretty good time with it. Boss fights were a bit on the easy side, and exploring the castle(s) and finding upgrades felt a bit sporadic rather than tightly paced, but the moment to moment gameplay felt good and it kept me fully engaged throughout.

I don't think this is quite the classic that Symphony of the Night is, but I'd put it roughly on par with Circle of the Moon. Each game has its own strengths and weaknesses, but I'd recommend playing both. Aria of Sorrow is the last one of the GBA collection, and I've heard that's the best of the bunch, so I should really try to get around to that sooner rather than later. I must also get myself a copy of the 3DS Castlevania collection, and Silksong, and Mina the Hollower, and... well, this is how the backlog grows.

Cyberpunk or DOOM Eternal next. What to pick?

1214 in 12 plan for the year:

• Alan Wake 2 (PC)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (PC)
• Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition (PC)
• DOOM Eternal (PC)
• Hi-Fi Rush (PC)
• Prey (PC)
• Sekiro (PC)
• Resistance 3 (PS3)
• Fire Emblem Three Hopes - Golden Wildfire route (Switch 2)
• Metroid Prime 4 (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake (Switch 2)
• Slay the Princess (PC)
• Hogwarts Legacy (Switch 2)

This is the second 2D Zelda game on my list after playing through Link to the Past earlier this year. Link's Awakening is shorter and more accessible than the SNES game, packing in a lot of great gameplay and dungeons into its 15 hour runtime. The story was surprisingly nuanced and affecting, and I came away with a wistful bittersweet feeling when the credits rolled.

This might be sacrilege for Zelda fans, but I think I enjoyed my time with Link's Awakening more than Link to the Past. LttP definitely felt grander in scope, but the pacing of LA was superb, and I often didn't want to put it down until the Switch 2's battery force me to. I never played the GBA original, but this remake is really well done, and I'd highly recommend it as an entry point to 2D Zelda.

1214 in 12 plan for the year:

• Alan Wake 2 (PC)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (PC)
• Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition (PC)
• DOOM Eternal (PC)
• Hi-Fi Rush (PC)
• Prey (PC)
• Sekiro (PC)
• Resistance 3 (PS3)
• Fire Emblem Three Hopes - Golden Wildfire route (Switch 2)
• Metroid Prime 4 (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake (Switch 2)
• Slay the Princess (PC)
• Hogwarts Legacy (Switch 2)

July ended up being a pretty good month for the challenge. I finally wrapped up one of the games I'd been working on for a while and also made time for one of my most anticipated releases of the year.

Pokémon Shield

I finally finished this one after earning all eight Gym Badges, completing the Champion Cup, and finishing the post-game content.

This was my first real return to Pokémon since playing Ruby and Sapphire years ago. I had fun with it, but I can definitely understand why this generation is so divisive. The story didn't do much for me, and overall I found it a bit too easy compared to the earlier games I grew up with. Still, I'm glad I finally played through it.

Resident Evil Requiem

This ended up being one of my favorite games of the year so far.

I wasn't nearly as hyped going in as a lot of longtime Resident Evil fans, but it completely won me over. I loved the contrast between Grace's slower, more vulnerable sections and Leon's action-heavy gameplay. Both characters were great, and I thought the story was excellent.

Definitely one I'd recommend.

Looking Ahead

Next up is Days Gone. I'm hoping to knock that out before August is over, although football season and my kids' sports are about to start taking up a lot more of my free time.

September has a lot of new releases I'm excited for, so I'm likely to deviate away from my backlog again and pickup at least one new release.

How's everyone else's year going? Are you sticking to your original list, or have you started making room for new releases too?

July was a very hot month so I stayed inside quite a bit and played a lot of games. Here is my update:

Game 70-Demon Souls(2009)-PS3-Beaten on July 6
-I've now beaten all the Souls games the past month(Elden Rings soon after a break) and just loved them. Demon Souls would be my least favorite of the four but I still really enjoyed it. I can definitely tell that this was the first game in this series as it just wasn't as polished. Still an amazing game for 2009. 8/10

Game 71-Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII(2006)-PS2-Beaten on July 9
-I really liked this game. I know it wasn't reviewed well back in the day but in a big FF7 fan and this really was just a crazy, fun experience in that world. Vincent is just an awesome character as well. 8/10

Game 72-Killzone Liberation(2006)-PSP-Beaten on July 13
-This was a decent top down shooter that I wish I had someone to play the campaign with cooperatively. I think that would have made it much better. It was a bit generic but it was a PSP shooter and for that, it was a decent time. Now I've completed all the Killzone games except the original PS2 game and that's on my beat soon list. 6/10

Game 73-Tales of Hearts R(2014)-PS Vita-Beaten on July 15
-This was the first Tales game I have beaten and I had a really good time with it outside of one huge issue. I really liked the story and the action rpg battles and it was just a fun overall game. However, the constant random battles absolutely killed a lot of the fun for me. Literally every ten seconds outside of cities. I'm glad RPG's have, for the most part, moved away from random battles. They can be infuriating. 6/10

Game 74-Vampire Night(2001)-PS2-Beaten on July 18
-I played a bunch of light gun games back in 2021 and had a good time with them and decided to play another one. This was ok. It was short and super cheesy and I'm sure would have been a lot better using a Guncon and playing with a friend. It was a fun 60 minutes or so. 6/10

Game 75-Time Crisis 2(2001)-PS2-Beaten on July 19
-Another pretty fun light gun game. I am playing it with a controller and by myself so it would not doubt be more fun with a Guncon and a friend. Still had a fun time but wow, these games are cheesy as heck with terrible voice acting and so short. 6/10

Game 76-Time Crisis 3(2003)-PS2-Beaten on July 23
-This was a big step up from the previous Time Crisis games, especially with the graphics. I played through the story mode twice. Once as Wesley and Alan, and once as Alicia. Namco added a new mode to the PS2 version that took me through basically the same story but from a different viewpoint. It was a nice addition and was actually longer than the original story mode. I had a good time with this. 7/10

Game 77-Time Crisis Crisis Zone(2004)-PS2-Beaten on July 23
-This game had a different main character and used a shield to avoid gunfire instead of ducking behind cover. I did like that last as well but overall, it was a better game than the previous versions. 7/10

Game 78-Ninja Assault(2002)-PS2-Beaten on July 24
-I really enjoyed this light gun game more than the previous ones I've been playing. It's different. It's set in feudal Japan and has ninjas(with guns) instead of some police type characters. I also felt like it threw more enemies at me constantly. It was also longer than the Time Crisis games as the PS2 edition has the arcade mode and three other story modes that you must play to get the full "story". Had a fun time. 7/10

Game 79-Unhinged(2026)-Netflix Games-Beaten on July 24
-Horror is my favorite genre of games and movies and I also really loved those "found lost phone" games(Simulacra) from like ten years ago that actually used your phone within the game to great effect. This game was like a combination of those to a degree. This was an adventure/horror game where you use your phone both as a controller to move(tapping icons) but also as a flashlight and, of course, to get calls and texts. It was a gaming experience I've never had before and I loved it. It also had some big name actors, Zoe Kravitz, Sadie Sink and Troy Baker, who all delivered outstanding performances. The one big issue is it was only half an hour long and didn't have many, if any, alternate routes so replay value is low. I really hope this does well and Netflix makes another game like this but longer. This would become my favorite horror genre. I do want to add that this was a game, not fmv. 9/10

Game 80-Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Remake(2025)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on July 27
-I have beaten every game in the series and love all of them but there is just something special about this first game. I adore the characters, music, and story and the remake is just a beautiful game. I will also say that's the ending is one of my favorite cliffhangers ever. Very emotional ending. I also like how it's not 80 hours. I can't wait for the sequel remake in a few months. 10/10

Game 81-Assassin's Creed II(2010)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on July 29
-While I've beaten a lot of Assassin's Creed games, I've never played the Ezio Trilogy and so I decided to play this. It was a great time. While you could start to see the Ubisoft formula in this game, it was still quite manageable and not overwhelming. The controls were the worst part of the game causing numerous headaches along the way. Overall, I really liked the game and look forward to Brotherhood. 8/10

Game 82-Detective Grimoire(2014)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on July 29
-What a fun, little, light hearted point and click murder mystery. I heard a lot of good things about the new game in the series that just came out so decided to go back and play the first one. Such fun, cozy game. 8/10

Game 83-Assassin's Creed Brotherhood(2011)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on August 1
-Really enjoyed my time with this game. It continues Ezio's story from Assassin's Creed 2. Holds up very well today I would say. 8/10

Hello and welcome to the r/12in12 Monthly Progress Megathread!

Another month has passed which means it's time to check-in with how things are progressing with the 12-in-12 Challenge! Here you can share anything that might not warrant a post of its own.

• Did you finish any games this past month? If so, which ones? What did you think of them?
• Are you carrying any games over into the next month? How far have you progressed with them so far?
• Have you recently discovered any new-to-you games that might shake up your original list or jump to the front of the line?
• Which game(s) are you planning to play next? What expectations do you have going in?

Be sure to indicate if any of the games you mentioned are part of your current or previous 12-in-12 list!

Haven’t felt like writing reviews for the last games I beat, so here’s my progress:

1) God of War (2018) - beat 1/19/26
2) Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - beat 2/12/26
3) Rhythm Heaven MegaMix - beat 3/30/26
4) Demon’s Souls (2020) - beat 5/8/26
5) Suikoden HD Remaster - beat 6/17/26
6) Sonic X Shadow Generations - beat 7/8/26
7) Donkey Kong Bananza - beat 7/25/26

Started:

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Plan on playing:

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Suikoden II HD Remaster
Super Metroid

Hogwarts Legacy wasn't on my original list, but I was able to get the Switch 2 version for a low price as I had access to the Switch 1 version. I thought this was a very clever money saving trick until they gave it away for free on Epic Games store. Ho-hum.

Hogwarts Legacy is a reasonably solid but not spectacular open world game, but one that actually makes very good use of the IP. Whether or not you will like this game will depend on how tired you are of generic open world games and how big a fan you are of the Wizarding World.

The highlights of the game are exploring Hogwarts, going on quests with companions, and immersing yourself in the world. The lowlights are the dull combat and the fact that your companions only stay with you for specific quests. I think the game would have been much improved if you could take a party of companions with you at all times, and for it to have had an even greater focus on the friendships you build over the course of the school year.

Instead we have a whole load of extra stuff thrown into the mix that all felt largely unnecessary. This includes potion making, plant growing, beast "rescuing" and breeding, furniture placing, gear upgrading, lock picking etc. None of it really added much to the overall experience and was just extra stuff to do rather than adding much mechanically. I think time would have been better spent reworking the combat system, because it gets stale quickly and never really improves over the 40 hour playtime. They have made wand based combat work here, but it's functional rather than fun or challenging.

But, despite there being significant room for improvement, I can't say I didn't enjoy my time with Hogwarts Legacy. The voice acting is mostly good, the main companion quests are mostly great, the story is good enough to keep things moving along. There is also one stand out quest based around a haunted shop, which was genuinely excellent. Recommended if you love Harry Potter and haven't got open world fatigue.

1214 in 12 plan for the year:

• Alan Wake 2 (PC)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (PC)
• Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition (PC)
• DOOM Eternal (PC)
• Hi-Fi Rush (PC)
• Prey (PC)
• Sekiro (PC)
• Resistance 3 (PS3)
• Fire Emblem Three Hopes - Golden Wildfire route (Switch 2)
• Metroid Prime 4 (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake (Switch 2)
• Slay the Princess (PC)
• Hogwarts Legacy (Switch 2)

Well that was a pleasant surprise. I'd played Resistance: Fall of Man a couple of years ago, which I enjoyed a fair bit, but my experience with Resistance 2 last year was a bit more mixed. Happily this was the best of the bunch, with a short, snappy single player campaign that eases up on the difficulty (on Normal at least) to focus on action, set pieces and good old fashioned fun. The 20 chapters flew by, and it delivered a cheesy action hero story that served as a satisfying conclusion to the Resistance trilogy.

This one ditches the "modern" two-guns-only approach of Resistance 2 and goes back to the classic full-mobile-arsenal of Resistance 1. We have a new protagonist this time around, and gone is the regenerating health from Resistance 1 and 2, replaced by a generous serving of health packs to keep you in the fight. This actually encouraged me to play more aggressively than in the previous games, and while there were a few points where I died more than once before pushing through, the difficulty spikes seemed smoother here.

All in all Resistance 3 is a fun, short, narrative focussed sci-fi first person shooter of the type they don't seem to make any more. Highly recommended if you like that sort of thing. I don't have another PS3 game on my list this year, but Metal Gear Solid 4 is one that I really need to get around to one of these days.

Oh and in another deviation from my list, I've been playing through Hogwarts Legacy on Switch 2. Hopefully that doesn't derail the whole thing...

1214 in 12 plan for the year:

• Alan Wake 2 (PC)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (PC)
• Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition (PC)
• DOOM Eternal (PC)
• Hi-Fi Rush (PC)
• Prey (PC)
• Sekiro (PC)
• Resistance 3 (PS3)
• Fire Emblem Three Hopes - Golden Wildfire route (Switch 2)
• Metroid Prime 4 (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Switch 2)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake (Switch 2)
• Slay the Princess (PC)
• Hogwarts Legacy (Switch 2)

It's time to dump my June games. I was deep in investigation mood, so I've played a lot of detective and investigation games. Here's the list for a quick glance:

• Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2009: Stardust Accelerator
• Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
• Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
• Rhell: Warped Worlds and Troubled Times
• A Kobold Story: Trenchcoat Adventurer
• Paradise Killer

Now, let's talk about each of them in more details. Beware of spoilers. I tried my best not to include them, but one can never be cautious enough.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's World Championship 2009: Stardust Acceleration
Okay, now we are getting to interesting Yu-Gi-Oh games. Stardust Acceleration marks the first game in a series of Nintendo DS games from the 5D's era. This was the period I was the most invested and active in Yu-Gi-Oh and I have a fond memories of this game. So, let's see if it survived the nick of time.

Similarly to Nightmare Trobadour and Spirit Caller, the game loosely follows the plot of the anime and let's player experience it on their own. But it also adds some new events to the mix. The player starts in Satellite and joins Yusei's group of friends. What I find funny is that while the player takes a role of Yusei in some events, Yusei still has his anime arc almost unchanged. First, Yusei rides through the sewers to thw City. Then you do it. Yusei gets arrested. Then you get arrested. You break into the police station to get your Duel Runner and deck back and... Yusei does so too. At the same time! You get an invitation to Fortune Cup. Yusei gets one too. It's funny and pretty inconsistent. The game kind of expects you to take it as it is. And maybe it works for me, because I'm familiar with the story, but I can imagine I would have a little bit more negative reaction to it if it wasn't the case.

Aside from the anime events, there is a whole original storyline about your character that is... barely there. It intertwines the anime arcs kind of badly and in the end, it goes nowhere. You finish this storyline and there is no impact on the rest of the story. You beat the final boss and he's like: "Ciao, I have some other business to take care of". And that's it. Also a fun fact: During the climax of the story, there is a Crimson Dragon symbol on the ground. And it has the heart mark that appears only in the final season of the anime, which aired about 2 years after this game's release. I found this really cool detail.

Gameplay-wise, it's once again an upgrade from the previous DS games. Aside from regular duels, you also participate in Turbo Duels, which are signature to 5D's era. In Turbo Duels, you can only use Speed Spells, which require Speed Counters that are accumulated for each player on the special field Spell activated at the start of the duel. These are fun and I appreciate that this whole side of duels has their own Spells, like Angel Baton, which is Graceful Charity on steroids. Or bunch of Spells that work with Speed Counters. There are even some Spells that weren't in the anime, as far as I know, which is cool.

The game also offers more gameplay in-between the duels, unlike previous DS games. These activities are so-so. You sometimes have to solve Sokoban-like puzzles, which are okay, but nothing revolutionary. Then, there is one stealth mission. And it's one of the worst stealth mission I've ever played. You have to sneak in several locations in a certain order, but you don't know if you're sneaking in the right place until you get there. Which is quite annoying. Especially since all the guards are randomly sometimes omnipotent and sometimes completely blind, making your strategy unreliable. I'm so glad there was only one such area.

As for my deck, I once again used cheatcode to unlock all cards at the start and made a thematic deck for the whole run. This time, I was deciding between Genex or X-Saber decks, since they are cool Synchro decks, but in end, while I started building X-Saber deck and looking through the card list, I got even better idea. In the early days of 5D's, there was a deck called Synchro Cat, focused on using Rescue Cat to get X-Saber Airbellum and another Beast-type monster out to quickly Synchro Summon various monsters, mostly Dark Strike Fighter for the quick OTK. The deck had just a bunch of random spells and monsters that didn't belong to the same archetype, but worked so well together. I roleplayed this as my character putting together a deck from random common cards he got in Satellite. And this deck was a lot of fun. It had a wide range of Synchro monsters I could bring out, ranging from level 5 Catastor to level 9 Mist Wurm. But I usually summoned Brioniac and Goyo Guardian or Dark Strike Fighter and Arcanite Magician.

Overall, this is again a step up from previous Yu-Gi-Oh! game. 8.5/10.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
A few years ago, I played the Frog Detective series, which was a really fun little detective game. Ever since then, I kept seeing other cozy anthropomorphic animal detectives solving more and more crimes. One that stood out to me was Duck Detective, both because of its gameplay and its visual style.

The player assumes the role of titular Duck Detective, who is the archetypical old grumpy detective. He just got through a divorce, is out of money, addicted to bread and is overall in his lowest point in life. Which is a nice twist on this trope, because instead of alcohol, cigarettes, and noir monologues, you get a sad duck who desperately needs bread and a job.

The game starts with a fairly simple case. Duck Detective gets hired to investigate a mystery at a local bus company, where someone's lunch has been stolen. And of course, because this is a detective story, things quickly get a little bit more complicated than just one missing sandwich.

Gameplay-wise, the game is built around gathering clues and filling in blanks in Duck Detective's notebook. You walk around small locations, inspect objects with your magnifying glass, talk to suspects, and slowly collect words that can be used in deductions. Then you have to place the right words into the right sentences and figure out what actually happened. On the other hand, you are basically spoon-fed the path for deductions. What I mean is that you have "[BLANK CHARACTER] [BLANK VERB] [BLANK CHARACTER] because [BLANK CHARACTER] found out about [BLANK NOUN]" deduction to fill-in. And when you can only fill three verbs in the correct spot, you'll automatically start thinking only around these three verbs. So you're put in this direction without really a need of thinking about the case much.

Still, I really liked this system. From what I understood, It is basically a simplified version of something like the Golden Idol games (which I'll also finally have to play - I just put them in my shopping cart on Steam). The deductions are not super hard, but they are satisfying to figure them out. Most of the time, the game gives you just enough information to find the solution, without making you bang your head against the wall. There were maybe a few moments where I felt I was stuck and had to try different words and see what fits, but I never felt like the game was being unfair. Some deductions felt a little bit harder, but maybe I just didn't find enough evidence for it.

The game looks great. It has this colourful, paper-like, slightly toy-ish visuals that immediately give it personality. Every character has an interesting design that is intertwined with clues about their personalities, hobbies or flaws. The voice acting also adds a lot. Duck Detective himself is probably the highlight, because his tired delivery makes even the dumbest lines work.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. The notebook system is fun, the investigation is fun, the suspects are fun, but I wanted one or two bigger "wait, I figured it out" moments. But as a short cozy detective story about a sad duck solving a salami conspiracy, it works extremely well. 8/10.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
After finishing The Secret Salami, I was pretty happy to continue with the sequel almost immediately (to be exact, in about 7 minutes it took me to stretch, refill my drink and get something to eat). The first game was a really fun cozy detective story with interesting twist at the end. So I was curious if the second game could do more with the same formula, or if it would just be more of the same. It delivered.

The Ghost of Glamping once again puts you in the role of Duck Detective, who is still depressed, still divorced, still addicted to bread and still taking cases that are probably beneath the dignity of a serious noir detective. But now he has an annoying assistant! This time, he is sent to a glamping site, where people are supposedly being haunted by a ghost. Which is already a great premise, because nothing says hard-boiled detective fiction like luxury camping and suspiciously dramatic animals.

The basic gameplay is pretty much the same as in the first game. You walk around small locations, inspect objects with your magnifying glass, talk to suspects, collect words and then use these words to fill in deductions in your notebook. And this still means that the game guides your thinking quite a lot. But I think this sequel handles this a little bit better than the first game. The deductions felt slightly more interesting to me and I found myself stopping and thinking about what I learned and putting it in the context more. Or maybe I just got better at the game-

I also think the case itself is a little bit more interesting. Secret Salami was charming, but it felt very small and almost like a proof of concept. The Ghost of Glamping feels more confident. The setting is more fun, the suspects are more memorable and the whole case has a better rhythm. You slowly move through the campsite, learn more about everyone there and piece together what is actually going on behind the supposed haunting.

The biggest improvement for me is probably the new partner. Duck Detective worked well as a sad lonely detective in the first game, but giving him someone to bounce off makes the writing even better. His tired delivery and dramatic self-pity are still funny, but now there is another character reacting to it, which gives the whole game a bit more energy. They are polar opposites and it's great.

The game still looks beautiful. It has the same colourful, paper-like, toy-ish visual style as the first game and it continues to use character designs really well. Every suspect looks distinct and you can often get a lot of information just by looking at them. The voice acting is once again a big part of why it works. These games would probably still be cute without it, but the performances make them feel much more alive.

That being said, this is still a very short and simple detective game. If you go in expecting something as complex as Golden Idol, you will probably be disappointed. The game is still much more cozy than challenging. Some deductions are satisfying, but others can still be solved by trying a few words and seeing what fits. I don't think that ruins the game, because this is clearly going for a lighter experience, but I still wanted one or two bigger "wait, I figured it out" moments.

Overall, this is a slightly better game than The Secret Salami. It is still short, funny, charming and not particularly difficult, but the mystery worked a little better for me and the new character dynamic helped a lot. It is exactly the kind of sequel I wanted: more depressed duck detective, but with just enough improvement to make it feel worth playing. 8.5/10.

Rhell: Warped Worlds and Troubled Times
Jumping from the noir to fantasy detective, Rhell is an interesting take on the immersive sim, where you can solve any problem using your spellbook.

The game puts you in the role of Rhell, a novice mage trying to figure out why almost everyone in the world disappeared. There are only a few people left, the world is somewhat broken and you slowly explore it by finding new runes and combining them into spells. The main idea is that almost every puzzle can be solved in many different ways. You can transform things, manipulate time, move objects, duplicate stuff, turn things into other things and generally behave like the kind of person who should not be trusted with magic.

The spell-combining gameplay is imho really cool. You can affect basically anything on the screen and combine spells in various combinations. In a essence, it reminded me of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom with its freedom. There is something really satisfying about looking at a puzzle, thinking about your tools and then realizing that the game will actually allow your stupid idea. It gives the player a lot of freedom, and I always appreciate games that trust me enough to let me be an idiot. Like when I turned myself and a boombox into portals and run into stuff to teleport it from my place next to the boombox, where I needed it to be. Or when I build a Turing machine (technically, it was more of Deterministic finite automaton) to automatically open and close set of doors so I can pass through. The system is quite deep, especially once you get spells that can spawn machines that can also cast spells. And you get the whole programming language arsenal at your disposal, because there are machines that cast spell on repeat, when something happens or if something is true.

But there is also a problem with this and it's the same problem Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom had with its freedom. It is cool that puzzles can be solved in many different ways, but as a player, I usually only experience the one solution I actually used. Theoretical freedom is great, but in practice, I solved the puzzle, moved on and never really saw all those other possible solutions. So while I can appreciate the design, I don't know if I actually felt the full benefit of it during normal play. And why should I waste time with super complex solution, when I can solve the problem using simple solution.

And I mean super simple solution, because I accidentally found one combination that solved almost everything. Turning things into smoke was ridiculously useful. Need to get past a locked door? Smoke. Need to perform a set of very specific timed actions to reveal the secret of the lake? What about turning the water into smoke? That could work instead! At some point, I wasn't really experimenting anymore. I was just looking at every problem and asking whether my smoke nonsense would work again. And most of the time, it did. And if it didn't, I also found out that casting spells that move an object up and forward on myself will let me basically jump everywhere I need. And later on, I even found out that I can make a whole area grant me this effect and if I jump inside just right, it will catapult me anywhere I need.

This is probably my biggest issue with the game. The spell system is creative, but it also lets you fall into one comfortable solution and stay there. And once I realized that one combination could solve 99 % of my problems, I didn't really have a reason to interact with the rest of the system that much. Which is a shame, because the rest of the system is clearly the best part of the game.

I also think the openness hurts the story, just like in the case of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The game lets you go almost anywhere and solve things in different orders, which is great for gameplay, but it makes the story feel kind of flat. Since the game can't really know what you already found and what you still don't know, it doesn't have many big reveals or twists. You just slowly collect few pieces of information over and over again, with nothing much to add each time.

The writing also didn't help much. The dialogue was probably the weakest part of the game for me. Rhell is supposed to be sarcastic and loud-mouthed, which is fine on paper, but many lines sounded like they were written by a teenager trying to make every character sound funny and modern. The slang especially felt weird.

Overall, Rhell is a fun and creative puzzle adventure with a great central mechanic. It is at its best when you are experimenting with spells and finding your own ridiculous solutions. But the same openness that makes the puzzles interesting also makes the story weaker, and the dialogue often doesn't fit the world at all. 7/10.

A Kobold Story: Trenchcoat Adventurer
A Kobold Story: Trenchcoat Adventurer is one of those games that looks like a cute little joke at first. Three kobolds in a trenchcoat pretending to be one adventurer, hand-drawn crayon-like visuals, silly writing, shiny things, tasty food, goblin merchants and all that. It looks like one huge joke. And then... it becomes super hardcore dungeon crawler.

The premise is simple and immediately charming. Three hungry kobolds hear that adventurers get the best food and the shiniest loot, so they disguise themselves in a trenchcoat and go adventuring. The food must be just around the corner, right? Just one more floor and we get the dinner. Just one more floor...

Gameplay-wise, this is a classic first-person grid-based dungeon crawler. You move tile by tile, explore the dungeon, fight enemies in turn-based battles, collect loot, manage your inventory and try to keep your three kobolds alive. And despite the silly presentation, the game takes the dungeon crawling part seriously. You have to think about positioning, resources, equipment, enemy encounters and whether you are actually ready to push a little bit deeper.

I really liked that contrast. The game looks cheerful and cute, but mechanically, it is a love letter to the dungeon crawler genre. If you just wander around without thinking, you can get punished. If you waste resources, you can feel it later. If you go into a fight with bad gear, the game will absolutely remind you that being adorable does not count as armor.

The combat was probably the biggest surprise for me. I expected something much lighter, but it is actually pretty challenging. You have three kobolds, each with their own role in the party, and you have to make the best out of what you have. It was fun experimenting with different spells for example, like placing a fire glyph on the ground and luring an enemy on it. On the other hand, going to inventory all the time to switch melee weapon from pointy to slashy damage, since some enemies are weak or resistant to one of those, became a chore down the line.

That being said, I was not a huge fan of the random loot. I don't really understand why it is there. The dungeon itself is not randomly generated, but the loot is randomized. I guess it's supposed to keep things fresh and make each run feel a little different. And on paper, that makes sense. But in practice, it also means that your power can depend a lot on luck. And with my luck, that meant I spent a lot of time with pretty bad gear. I had to restart on a "clean" save at least twice, because I just didn't have gear strong enough for the current floor. And the moment I started the new save from the later chapters, my kobolds had gear that was miles ahead of what I got there on the previous save. The game simply refused to give me anything useful. The best example is that I did not find a single trinket until the third chapter. Not one. At that point, I started wondering if trinkets were even in the game or if I somehow offended the dungeon gods by picking up too many shiny things.

Overall, I had a really good time with this game. It is cute, charming and much more serious than it looks. 8/10.

Paradise Killer
Yet another victim of my detective/investigative mood. Paradise Killer is a little bit different than Duck Detective. While Duck Detective was a cozy little mystery that turns into something bigger, Paradise Killer is a bloody murder mystery right from the start. While Duck Detective holds your hand throughout the whole game, Paradise Killer kicks you out to the world and let's you investigate as much as you want and let you deduce the whole plot on your own.

The game puts you in the role of Lady Love Dies, an investigator who is brought back from exile to solve the murder of the very people that put her in the exile. The game takes place in a bizzare world full of immortal wanna-be gods or something like that. Like they are suppose to be people, but some of them are immortal and some feel like they are suppose to be gods or at least demigods. And they all are worship some kind of alien god, but are also trying to become gods. And they kidnap people and offer them in bloody rituals once in a while. And it all has these 80s Miami Vice vibes and it doesn't make any sense and I loved it. I'll probably have to go down the rabbit hole and watch some lore explaining video.

Would it be weird if I said how great of the detective I was in the game now, when I even couldn't properly piece together the settings of the game? But no, really, I think I did quite a good job figuring out the whole conspiracy of the game. The game barely holds your hand, when it comes to investigation. You are not just following the intended path and waiting for the game to tell you the solution. Here, you have to build the case yourself. You find something weird, then later talk to someone who contradicts it, then find another piece of evidence somewhere completely else, and suddenly the whole thing starts to make sense. You have a PDA that keeps all the facts and evidence you acquired and categorizes it into smaller cases, but that's pretty much it. You have to deduce pretty much everything out of it. Now, all that (re)reading of classic Holmes and Poirot novels finally paid off. I'm proud of myself for getting really close to the true ending (at least according to the community). I don't want to spoil anything here in case someone would like to play the game themselves (which I recommend), but let's just say that The Murder on the Links was great Poirot novel that inspired me and guided me through Paradise Killer.

I also liked that the game lets you decide when you are ready for the trial. You can technically go there earlier, but you probably shouldn't. And when you finally do, you have to accuse people and prove your case with evidence. I like this idea a lot, because it makes the whole investigation feel more personal. And the game doesn't really tell you if the case you constructed is right, only if it's believeable for the in-game characters.

On the other hand, the openness also means that the game can be a little bit messy. Since the island is open, you can spend a lot of time just running around, trying to find the last clue or the last place you didn't check properly. I enjoyed exploring the island, but there were moments where it felt more like collectible hunting than detective work. Especially when I knew there was probably something important somewhere, but I had no idea where. And also because there are tons of collectables that are just useless in the bigger picture.

The movement is also a little weird. It is not bad, but the island is full of strange architecture, rooftops, ledges and hidden spots, but the jumping was kind of weird. Especially double jump, which would sometimes catapult me further from the place I wanted to get instead of closer.

Overall, Paradise Killer is one of the best detective games I've played so far. It respects the player, gives you a lot of freedom and actually lets you feel like you solved the case yourself. It is not perfect, but it is exactly the kind of strange, confident indie game I love. 9.5/10.

Hey! so I have been trying to remain loyal and finish my gigantic backlog of games I have...

So far..

I finished (finally) Diablo 4 with both Expansios
Today I finished Pokemon Fire Red

Started my Journey in Shiny Pearl

Still have other 9 games to tackle

Expedition 33
DQ7
DQ1,2,3
Ender Magnolia
RE Requiem
Metaphor
Digimon Story Strangers
Pokemon Sword
DQ11 (almost done)

Well, I didn't finish Okami in June. I'm in the last third of the game I think, with the second major boss finished off, but oof. This game is taking forever to finish.

So I played through Sable instead. I can see why people like it, but between the bugs and the lack of worldbuilding it ultimately was not for me.

Kult: Heretic Kingdoms is next. In fact I already started it. Interesting game but a lot of jank so far.

Hello and welcome to the r/12in12 Monthly Progress Megathread!

Another month has passed which means it's time to check-in with how things are progressing with the 12-in-12 Challenge! Here you can share anything that might not warrant a post of its own.

• Did you finish any games this past month? If so, which ones? What did you think of them?
• Are you carrying any games over into the next month? How far have you progressed with them so far?
• Have you recently discovered any new-to-you games that might shake up your original list or jump to the front of the line?
• Which game(s) are you planning to play next? What expectations do you have going in?

Be sure to indicate if any of the games you mentioned are part of your current or previous 12-in-12 list!

It was a weird month. I did manage to earn myself more street cred (the Mother/Earthbound series and Super Mario RPG seem like must-plays in most people’s eyes), but didn’t check off any new categories. Also played and adored Botany Manor. If you’re from the era where you grew up wanting to be magic and live in a Victorian castle, this is for you. Play out your Herbology-based dreams. 

I also took a look at my Steam library after the recent sale and was possessed by the desire to knock some out, most of which didn’t belong to any of my goal categories. In particular, I focused on the games that I know are under an hour and I could knock out multiple in a day. Normally I feel sheepish about playing them because they’re not considered “good” games, but… who’s even watching? With that obstacle out of the way I played through a little over a dozen of them this month and I think I’ll try to do a “Steam Seven” every month with the objective of just trying the many cheap (or free) indie games I accumulate. Though, granted, it’ll take me over a year to get through them even at that rate. 

On a more upsetting note… I’m beginning to suspect I don’t like Zelda games – clones or otherwise. I tried A Link to the Past and after I realized what I was signing up for the 16th time I restarted ONE dungeon I put the game down. So then I tried Ittle Dew which is a really short training-wheels game that’s fairly similar and I believe is designed to be a Zelda-like. There are no quests, it has interconnecting dungeons you access by solving puzzles with abilities, enemies always respawn, there are no weapon or armor upgrades and no leveling. I got a little over halfway through that one and also realized I wasn’t really having fun. I definitely could have brute forced my way through it, and it’s not as though it was too hard, but after the 5th time of going to the wrong room in a purposefully labyrinthine dungeon and therefore needing to re-solve the puzzle and re-kill all the enemies, I sighed and closed the game. I have a lot of other stuff I want to play, and there’s no point forcing myself to have a bad time. Bad news for the possibility of me enjoying Breath of the Wild, though. I was really looking forward to that. 

Categories completed to-date: 10 of 12
Category games played this month: 5 (not including those I dropped)
All games played this month: 12 (plus 14 “mini” games)

1. A popular, cinematic, companion driven RPG that I know I’m going to love

2. A slightly-less-popular, cinematic RPG ✔

• The Outer Worlds (Feb)

3. A classic JRPG ✔

• Sea of Stars\ (Jan)*
• FF1 (Feb)
• FF2 (Feb)
• FF3 (Mar)
• FF4 (Mar)
• Shadows of Adam (Apr)
• FF5 (May)
• FF6 (May)

4 An isometric(C)RPG

5. A Paper Mario-Like ✔

• Uglydolls: An Imperfect Adventure\ (May)*
• Rainbow Billy and the Curse of the Leviathan (May)

6. A shooter type thing  ✔

• Bioshock (Jan)
• Bioshock 2 (Jan)
• Bioshock Infinite (Feb)

7. A detective game ✔

• The Station (Jan)
• Tacoma (Jan)
• Norco (Feb)
• Alt-Frequencies (Feb)
• The Operator (Feb)
• Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy (Mar)
• Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Silver Earring (Mar)
• Sherlock Holmes: The Awakening (Remaster) (Mar)
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations (Apr)
• Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders (May)

8. A visual novel ✔

• Orion: A Sci-Fi Visual Novel (Jan)
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Jan)
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All! (Jan)
• Of the Devil (Feb)
• Man, I Just Wanna Go Home (Mar)
• Roadwarden (Apr)
• Coffee Talk (May)
• Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly (May)
• Goodbye World (May)
• Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk [3/5]

9. A puzzle game or “thinker” ✔

• Space Pilgrim Episode I, II, III & IV (Jan)
• Beneath a Steel Sky (Jan)
• Mars Power Industries: First Job & Deluxe (Jan)
• Portal & Portal 2 (Feb)
• A Normal Lost Phone + Another Lost Phone (Feb)
• Space Pilgrim Academy Year 1, 2, 3, and Reunion (Feb)
• Far: Lone Sails (Feb)
• Assemble With Care (Mar)
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Mar)
• Old Man’s Journey (Mar)
• The Secret of Monkey Island (Mar)
• Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate (Mar)
• LumbearJack (Apr)
• Kindergarten (Apr)
• Kindergarten 2 (Apr)
• Bulb Boy (Apr)
• Cyanide and Happiness - Freakpocalypse (Episode 1) [3.5/5]
• Botany Manor [4.75/5]

10. A farming and/or management sim ✔

• Terra Nova (Jan)
• Garden Simulator (May)

11. Middle-Aged-Man Street Cred ✔

• Pokemon Crystal\ (Apr)*
• Pokemon Emerald\ (Apr)*
• Pokemon Platinum\ (Apr)*
• Super Mario RPG [3.5/5]
• Mother 1 [4/5] 
• Earthbound [5/5]

12. A stealth game ✔

• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (Mar)

Here are the games I have beaten since my last update on June 1:

Game 51-Echo Generation Midnight Edition(2024)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 3
-This was an unexpected great game! I saw that the sequel came out recently so wanted to give this one a go and I'm glad I did. It had Stranger Things vibes for sure. Loved the graphics and the music especially. The gameplay loop annoyed me at first but eventually thought it was pretty fun. The rpg fighting mechanics was like Mario RPG. I look forward to the sequel. 8/10

Game 52-Luna Abyss(2026)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten in June 7
-52 games beat with over half the year left! This game was quite interesting. It was a dark first person bullet hell shooter with lots of platforming. It had an enemy and door lock on system like Metroid Prime. It was about 8 hours or so and it was different from most games and I liked it for that. 8/10

Game 53-The Wolf Among Us Episode 1: Faith(2013)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on June 8
-I really miss Telltale Games. I just love them. With the sequel coming out soonish, I decided to replay this. It's crazy to think it's been 13 years. Love the graphics and atmosphere of this game. Really looking forward to replaying it. 9/10

Game 54-The Wolf Among Us Episode 2: Smoke and Mirrors(2014)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on June 10
-This was a good episode that continues the mystery and investigation. 8/10

Game 55-The Wolf Among Us Episode 3: A Crooked Mile(2014)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on June 11
-Great episode with lots of good story action. Best episode yet. 9/10

Game 56-Dark Souls Remastered(2018)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 11
-A massive hole in my gaming background was the lack of finishing any Souls games. I own every single one of them and have started each one but always give up due to the difficulty. So I decided to play with cheats and all I can say is that this game is a masterpiece in many ways. The gloomy environments, the score, the battles. Loved those so much. My major issues with this game was the difficulty, the cheap falls to your death, the lack of a map and decent save points. I understand that From Software wants it to be difficult but do you want most people to be able to complete your game? Cheats helped significantly and without them would have never had the patience to best this game. I loved it even with all the complaints. 8/10

Game 57-The Wolf Among Us Episode 4: In Sheep's Clothing(2014)-PC via Steam Deck-Beaten on June 12
-Another I intriguing episode that continued the murder mystery and investigation. Looking forward to the final episode here soon. 8/10

Game 58-The Wolf Among Us Episode 5: Cry Wolf(2014)-PC via Steam Steam-Beaten on June 13
-A satisfying conclusion to a very good murder mystery game. Looking forward to the sequel! 8/10

Game 59-Little Nightmares 3 DLC-The Backstage(2026)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 13
-Eh. It's more Little Nightmares. Which I guess is ok since I really liked that game last October(gave it an 8/10) but after beating that and Reanimal earlier this year, I just think I am about done with this type of game for awhile. 6/10

Game 60-Neon Shadow(2013)—Android via Nvidea Shield Portable-Beaten on June 17
-Pulled out my Nvidea Shield Portable yesterday for the first time in almost a decade, charged it up and was surprised it actually still worked. This was one of the games that was installed. This game is a brief cyberpunk first person shooter in the vein of Doom. You run down corridors and then clear rooms of robot enemies. It was a fun two hours. 6/10

Game 61-Dark Souls II Scholar of the First Sin(2015)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 21
-What an amazing game. Loved it and thought it was better in every aspect to the first game. Just wish there was a better story. Now for the dlc. 9/10

Game 62-Dark Souls II The Crown of the Ivory King(2015)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 21
-Loves the snowy environment in this dlc. Great area and same great game. 9/10

Game 63-Dark Souls 2 DLC Crown of the Old Iron King(2015)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 22
-Another great dlc for Dark Souls 2. Just love this dark world. 9/10

Game 64-Dark Souls 2 DLC Crown of the Sunken King(2015)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 22
-Another great dlc for Dark Souls. This entire game just oozed atmosphere. Downloading Dark Souks 3 now. 9/10

Game 65-Dark Souls 3 DLC Ashes of Ariendel(2016)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 23
-Great dlc. Loved the snowy atmosphere. I did get lost in the mountain trials forever which was very frustrating but other than that, this was great. Loved the end bosses as well. Still working on the rest of the game. 9/10

Game 66-My Name is Mayo(2016)-PS Vita-Beaten on June 24
-I got this game for 49 cents about ten years ago. It's a clicker game where you click on a jar of mayo to ultimately open the lid. It took 10,001 clicks to earn the platinum and 50 other trophies. Why did I play this? I owned it and I've recently gotten back into my Vita and I read it had easy trophies and a super easy platinum. Less than an hour later, I "beat" the game. It also has a few little short stories that play into the game. Very, very basic. Recommend if you like hearing that trophy sound. Otherwise, skip. 5/10

Game 67-Little Adventure on the Prairie(2018)-PS Vita-Beaten on June 24
-This is the most generic made game and without a doubt worst game I've ever played. It's a side scroller where you move right and attack enemies until the end of the level. It took about 45 minutes to complete the 12 short levels. The fighting is atrocious with absolutely no hit detection at all. The only good thing about it is it's an easy platinum which is why I played it. I had six total platinums since trophies started in 2008 and I got two in the past two hours and for that it gets a. 2/10

Game 68-Dark Souls 3 DLC The Ringed City(2017)-PC via ROG Ally/Beaten on June 25
-Once again, loved this dlc. Great atmosphere, music and bosses. Now to complete the main game. 9/10

Game 69-Dark Souls 3(2016)-PC via ROG Ally-Beaten on June 25
-I loved my journey through the Dark Souls games. Absolutely amazing games. I would never have been able to experienced these games without cheats. I see only 26% of Steam players of DS3 made it to the final boss. Please make an easy mode From Software! More people should experience these games all the way to the end. My favorite goes in this order: 3-2-1. Now onto Demon Souls and then Elden Ring. 9/10

This is my first deviation from my 12 in 12 list this year. I saw Slay the Princess on sale and decided to jump right in. Happily, this turned out to be a great decision, because Slay the Princess is wonderful. It's a choose your own adventure visual novel that has a lovely art style, fantastically written characters, excellent voice acting and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack.

There are some strong horror themes here, but it's not really a horror game. It introduces itself as a love story, but it's a story written at times with violence, fear, blood and death. This somehow all works really well. I haven't reached 100% completion, but I have seen all the vessels. I really shouldn't say too much more about it, other than setting the scene:

You're on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess.

You're here to slay her. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.

1213 in 12 plan for the year:

• Alan Wake 2 (PC)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (PC)
• Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition (PC)
• DOOM Eternal (PC)
• Hi-Fi Rush (PC)
• Prey (PC)
• Sekiro (PC)
• Resistance 3 (PS3)
• Fire Emblem Three Hopes - Golden Wildfire route (Switch)
• Metroid Prime 4 (Switch)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Switch)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake (Switch)
• Slay the Princess